A new study at the University of Sydney in Australia says that retirement after working full-time can be beneficial to a person's health. This is due to increased time of sleep and more time for physical activities that alleviates being sedentary.
The research team studied the lifestyle behaviors of 25,000 older Australians. It showed that retirees increased daily sleep by 11 minutes, increased weekly physical activities by 93 minutes and decreased the daily sedentary time by 67 minutes. Also, half of the females quit smoking, as reported by PsychCentral.
"Our research revealed that retirement was associated with positive lifestyle changes," said lead researcher Dr. Melody Ding, senior research fellow at the university's School of Public Health. "Compared with people who were still working, retirees had increased physical activity levels, reduced sitting time, were less likely to smoke, and had healthier sleep patterns. A major life change like retirement creates a great window of opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes - it's a chance to get rid of bad routines and engineer new, healthier behaviors," she added.
The results are the same even after adjusting the factors including sex, age, marital status, education and urban/rural residence. However, alcohol use or fruit and vegetables consumption were not affected by retirement.
Retirement gives people time to pursue healthier lifestyles. Dr. Ding's mother's experiences of retirement inspired the study, according to News-Medical.
Her mother lives in China where women are mandated to retire at 55. By the time her mother turned 55, she got worried about stopping work as she felt being worthless. It made Dr. Ding to find some positive information about retirement.
The changes in lifestyle were seen in people who used to work full-time. Working and commuting consume a lot of people's time. People find more time to sleep and be physically active after retirement, said Ding. "In terms of sedentary time, the largest reduction in sitting time occurred in people who lived in urban areas and had higher educational levels," she added.
