Work stress and frailty in later life: comparison of two conceptual frameworks

Lucie Kalousova, University of Michigan
Carlos Mendes de Leon, University of Michigan

There is wealth of research on how work-related stress influences both physical and mental health outcomes. However, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the study of how work-stress influences later life health experiences once we exit the labor force. This study explores the relationship between work stress during working years and frailty in later life after retirement. We use the SHARE 2 and SHARELIFE dataset for our analysis. We apply two different conceptual frameworks to assess the level of stressfulness experienced by the worker – reward-effort model and demand-control-support model. The frailty measure is constructed by combining self-reported health measures and biomarkers. We present preliminary results that suggest a relationship between the levels of stress experienced at work and later life frailty.