Rethink retirement, says director of U.S. aging institute

Keeping older workers productive for longer may be the best medicine for society and the individual, according to the head of the nation's top research institute on aging. It's time to rethink retirement expectations, given longer lives and medical research that suggests retiring may not be good for one's health, said Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. Female life expectancies have on average increased by one year every four years since about 1840, and that increase is expected to continue on the same path or even speed up, given recent medical advances, he said. (More: How to better estimate life expectancy) Research into the molecular underpinnings of disease and the use of so-called big data to evaluate the real impacts of health habits are two possibilities that could boost current lifespan projections, he said. Already longer life spans are changing the demographics of society, as the global population of those who are 65 years and older is overtaking those who are aged 5 and under, he said. Looking out into the future, that older demographic, which was 5% of the population in 1950, is projected to represent greater than 15% of the population by 2050. The younger demographic, which made up about 13% of the population in 1950, is set to fall to about 7% to 8% by 2050, according to data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Mr. Hodes said the demographic shift brings up the question of how the older population “will be in effect supported” if seniors so outnumber younger groups? (More: Dying penniless: It's not just the poor) “The answer has got to be that the whole dynamic of our society has to change,” he said. “Our expectations about retirement, how long one is productive and employed, simply all have to be reconsidered and looked at.” In addition to people living longer, researchers have shown a very strong correlation that the earlier the retirement age in a given country, the poorer people do in terms of cognitive decline, he said. “A policy that has people working longer actually seems to correlate with sustained cognitive function,” Mr. Hodes said at the National Press Club on Thursday. The National Institute on Aging has a $1 billion annual budget that mostly supports research.