A thorough understanding of the relationship between ill health and retirement
requires the investigation of specific illnesses and mediating mechanisms. We
examined the relationship between specific major and minor health conditions and
work status (retired-health, RH; retired-other, RO; or working, W) in a population- based (N = 3097) study of rural elderly persons. Lifetime history rates of major
conditions were typically highest among RHpersons, and differed little between RO
and Wpersons. Mean number of major conditions was typically highest among RH
persons. RH was associated with poorer self-perceived health, physical functional
status, mood, and recall than were RO and W, which did not differfrom each other.
RH was also associated with increased prevalence and number of minor conditions
among women but not men. Thus RH is preferentially associated with specified
major medical conditions, increased number of major and minor health conditions,
and quantitative functional and psychological decrements.
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