Effect of Loneliness on Mortality After Retirement

Abstract

In the present study, the effect of the type and number of available objects on post-retirement mortality was examined. The hypothesis is that the fewer available objects people have upon retirement, the greater will be the mortality after retirement. The material was divided into three groups: married (assumed to have the greatest object potential), widowed or divorced (second greatest), and single (least potential). The material consisted of men retired on old age pension in 1964. Of these, 792 were married, 119 were widowed or divorced, and 77 were single. No statistically significant differences in mortality between groups on the basis of marital status could be found, although the results tended to favour the hypothesis. The number of suicides and accidents in the group of men dying within two years of retirement exceeded the expected values, but this increase was distributed fairly evenly between groups on the basis of marital status.