Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

School of Aging Studies

Major Professor

Ross Andel, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Hongdao Meng, M.D., Ph.D.

Committee Member

Brent Small, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Soomi Lee, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Amanda Sonnega, Ph.D.

Keywords

aging, cognitive functioning, longitudinal analysis, mixed effects models, moderation

Abstract

Due to the increase in the aging population and individuals spending more years in retirement, researchers and public health policymakers have expressed a growing interest in understanding retirement and the overall effects on health and aging. One area that is gaining attention is retirement and its effect on cognition. However, the association between retirement and cognition remains unclear, and pre-retirement modifying factors such as reasons for retirement and longest-held occupation have not been thoroughly assessed. Therefore, using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; n = 3,838) and mixed effects models, this dissertation aimed to examine the association between retirement and cognition and investigate pre-retirement modifying factors.

Study 1 showed that the expectation of retirement was linked to a decline in global cognition and episodic memory, and the decline in cognition was steeper after retirement. Analyses by sex and education showed that the negative association was greater for women and highly educated participants, particularly for episodic memory. Involuntary retirees experienced a steeper cognitive decline before retirement, but involuntary and voluntary retirees exhibited a similar decline in cognition after retirement. Retiring to spend more time with family was linked to better cognition before retirement. Retiring to do other things was related to better cognition before and after retirement. Retiring for poor health was associated with worse cognition before retirement.

Study 2 revealed that blue-collar workers had worse global cognition trajectories before and after retirement compared to white-collar workers, but both groups exhibited similar episodic memory trajectories. Analyses further stratified by sex further showed that female blue-collar workers had worse global cognition and episodic memory trajectories before and after retirement than the other subgroups. Before retirement, soft and hard manual work were related to a steeper decline in global cognition compared to managerial work, and hard manual work was related to a steeper decline in episodic memory compared to managerial work. After retirement, soft and hard manual work were related to a steeper decline in global cognition compared to managerial work, but the type of work did not affect episodic memory performance.

Overall, results suggest that retirement and cognition are negatively related and reasons for retirement and longest-held occupation are significant modifiers but decline in cognition varied based on categorization and type of cognitive domain. These findings are helpful for future research to identify factors that ameliorate cognitive aging during retirement which in turn can be used to inform retirement-related policies.

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