How long can we stay economically active? The development of working lifetime from a health perspective

• Applicant: Dr. Juliane Tetzlaff
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438655805

Against the backdrop of the increasing life expectancy, the possibilities and limits of prolonging working lives remain controversial and frequently discussed issues in Germany. However, the evidence on whether the development of health and morbidity among the German population allow for a further extension of the working lifetime is still very limited. The project aims on contributing to the evidence-basing of this discussion from a health perspective, taking into account the development of health inequalities over time. For this purpose, time trends in the length of the working lifetime will be analysed. Furthermore, it will be studied whether the development in population health justifies an extension of working lives and whether or not this holds for all socioeconomic subgroups. The project emerged from a long-term project on morbidity compression and health inequalities and will be conducted within an interdisciplinary research team.To evaluate health potentials, the development of the average lifetime spent in good health is analysed simultaneously to the development of the average length of working lives. During the project, a broad range of health/ morbidity indicators and specific diseases often causing early exists from the labour market will be considered. The project is led by three main questions:1) How did the average length of working lifetime develop over time?2) How did the average lifetime spent free of morbidity develop over time?3) What effect does psychological and physical stress have on health? Did the development of morbidity over time differ between occupational groups with lower and higher occupations stress? To allow for a broad picture of health developments in the population, the project is based on survey data (Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)) as well as on claims data of a statutory health insurance provider (AOK Niedersachsen). Developments in subjective health indicators (e.g. self-rated health and disabilities) will be analysed based on the datasets of SOEP and SHARE. Developments of specific diseases will be analysed using the data of the AOK Niedersachsen (>3 Mio. insured individuals, 2005-2017). The data of the AOK Niedersachsen cover the complete social structure of Germany (without individuals insured by private health insurance providers). Therefore, the results are not only meaningful for Lower Saxony but for Germany as well. The specific morbidities considered include diseases which often cause early labour market exists and retirements (cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, cancer diseases). Furthermore, the data include all information required to calculate the average length of working lives and its development over time.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants