I am course manager and examiner on the course "Stress, recovery, and health" which forms part of the Master's programme in public health sciences: individual perspectives run by the Department of Public Health Sciences.

It is common for retired people to have a job, particularly if they are healthy, well-educated and wealthy. Since many governments are encouraging greater participation of older people in paid work, patterns of labour market participation in later life may become more important for social and health inequalities in old age. These issues lie at the heart of my current research, which explores the implications of retirement and post-retirement work for individuals and societies.

Externally funded projects as principal investigator

The Swedish Research Council is funding me to lead a trans-Atlantic project examining how remaining in the labour market after pensionable age affects working conditions and living standards in the United States and Sweden. I collaborate with Kevin E. Cahill at Boston College and Hugo Westerlund at Stockholm University's Department of Psychology.

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond funded an international project examining the impact of post-retirement paid work on inequalities in later life in Japan, Sweden and the USA. Research funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation examined how people's quality of life is affected by paid work and retirement as well as by their health and social relationships. Forte funded a project to explore from quantitative and qualitative perspectives the nature of post-retirement work in Sweden and barriers to accessing post-retirement work.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Returns to work following retirement in Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom

  2024. Loretta G. Platts, Karen Glaser. Work, Aging and Retirement

  Article

  Most unretirement research has focused on single countries, indicating that socio-economic advantage and financial need predict unretirement in particular settings. Remarkably, little is known about whether the frequency and predictors of unretirement-returning to paid work after ceasing work at retirement-vary in relation to the country setting. We followed recent retirees over time in Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom to compare unretirement rates and predictors, and whether financial need predicted unretirement in a middle-income setting rather than in a high-income setting. We harmonized data ex post from four prospective surveys: German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1991-2016), Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (1994-2016), and for the United Kingdom, British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008), and Understanding Society (2010-2015). Unretirement was examined using Cox regression in relation to gender, age, education, health, household income, and financial difficulties. After 20 years of follow-up, the cumulative hazard of unretirement attained 0.20 in German, 0.24 in British, and 0.40 in Russian participants. Unretirement rates were generally higher for retirees who were younger, in better health and had higher household income. Worries about finances did not predict unretirement in Russia; such concerns predicted higher unretirement rates only in fully adjusted models in Germany and the United Kingdom. Since retirees in financial need may have difficulties finding suitable jobs, unretirement is a process with the potential to deepen financial inequality in later life. Variations in unretirement rates and predictors across countries demonstrate the importance of extending unretirement research to incorporate a cross-national comparative perspective.

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• Attachment in older adults is stably associated with health and quality of life: findings from a 14-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study

  2023. Loretta G. Platts, Aljosja Alm Norbrian, Matilda A. Frick. Aging & Mental Health 27 (9), 1832-1842

  Article

  Objectives: Secure adult attachment may promote health and well-being in old age, yet is understudied in this life phase. Consequently, we aim to examine associations between adult attachment and mental and physical health and quality of life, both concurrently and longitudinally.

  Methods: We used three phases of the Whitehall II study (n = 5,222 to 6,713). Adult attachment was measured with the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) at 48–68 years. Mental and physical health was measured concurrently and 14 years later; quality of life was measured five years later. We used linear regressions to examine associations, controlling for age, gender and education.

  Results: Almost half, 46% of participants, were classified as secure, 13% as preoccupied, 34% as dismissing and 7% as fearful. Adult attachment was associated with mental and physical health, concurrently and 14 years later, and with quality of life five years later. Preoccupied and fearful participants had poorest mental health and quality of life; dismissing participants held an intermediate position. Insecurely attached participants tended to report poorer physical health.

  Conclusions: Adult attachment has enduring associations with mental and physical health, which suggests that the construct of adult attachment itself is stable in this phase of the life course.

  Read more about Attachment in older adults is stably associated with health and quality of life

• Job Quality in the Late Career in Sweden, Japan and the United States

  2023. Loretta G. Platts (et al.). Research on Aging 45 (3-4), 259-279

  Article

  Increasing numbers of older workers continue to work after being eligible to claim a state pension, yet little is known about the quality of these jobs. We examine how psychosocial and physical job quality as well as job satisfaction vary over the late career in three contrasting national settings: Sweden, Japan and the United States. Analyses using random effects modelling drew on data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (n = 13,936–15,520), Japanese Study of Ageing and Retirement (n = 3704) and the Health and Retirement Study (n = 6239 and 8002). Age was modelled with spline functions in which two knots were placed at ages indicating eligibility for pensions claiming or mandatory retirement. In each country, post-pensionable-age jobs were generally less stressful, freer and more satisfying than jobs held by younger workers, results that held irrespective of gender or education level.

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• Does Bridge Employment Mitigate or Exacerbate Inequalities Later in Life?

  2022. Kevin E. Cahill (et al.). Work, Aging and Retirement

  Article

  Most older Americans with career employment change jobs at least once before retiring from the labor market. Much is known about the prevalence and determinants of these bridge jobs, yet relatively little is known about the implications of such job changes—compared to direct exits from a career job—upon economic disparities in later life. In this article, we use 26 years of longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to document the various pathways that older Americans take when exiting the labor force, and examine how bridge employment affects nonhousing wealth and total wealth, including the present discounted value of Social Security benefits. We find that gradual retirement in the form of bridge employment neither exacerbates nor mitigates wealth inequalities among Americans who hold career jobs later in life. That said, we do find some evidence that wealth inequalities grow among the subset of older career workers who transition from career employment to bridge employment at older ages. One policy implication of our article is that it provides evidence that might allay concerns about the potential for disparate financial impacts associated with the gradual retirement process. 

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• Changes in labour market histories and their relationship with paid work around state pension age: evidence from three British longitudinal studies

  2022. Karen Glaser (et al.). Ageing & Society

  Article

  Many countries have implemented policies to extend working lives in response to population ageing, yet there remains little understanding of what drives paid work in later life, nor how this is changing over time. This paper utilises the 1988/89 Survey of Retirement and Retirement Plans, the 1999 British Household Panel Survey and the 2008 English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, to investigate drivers of paid work in the ten years surrounding state pension age (SPA) for women and men in, comparing cohorts born in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Using optimal matching analysis with logistic and multinomial regression models, the study assesses the relative importance of lifecourse histories, socio-economic circumstances and contemporaneous factors, in determining paid work in mid- and later life. Participation in paid work in the five years preceding and beyond SPA increased markedly for men and women across cohorts, with women's lifecourses and engagement with paid work changing considerably in these periods. However, for women, a lifetime history of paid work remained a crucially important predictor of paid work in later life, and this relationship has strengthened over time. Experiencing divorce has also become an important driver of paid work around SPA for the youngest cohort. Having children later, and still having a mortgage, also independently predict labour force participation for women and men. Across all cohorts and for women and men, working at these older ages was a function of higher income and better health. These findings suggest that policies which enable people to maintain ties to paid work across the lifecourse may be more effective at encouraging later-life employment than those concerned only with postponing the retirement transition.

  Read more about Changes in labour market histories and their relationship with paid work around state pension age

• Changes in Job Quality as People Work Beyond Pensionable Age in Sweden

  2021. Lawrence B. Sacco (et al.). Work, Aging and Retirement

  Article

  Large numbers of people remain in paid work after pensionable age, often in bridge jobs or with reduced working hours. Remarkably, knowledge about the quality of these jobs relative to those taken prior to pension eligibility is very limited. In this paper, we examined changes in job quality among workers in their sixties in the context of contemporaneous changes in work intensity and employment characteristics. This study is based on data from the biennial Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH, 2006–2018, n = 1890–3013). Job quality outcomes were physical (dangerous, strenuous or unpleasant work) and psychosocial (job strain, effort-reward imbalance, work time control) working conditions and job satisfaction. First difference estimation was used to observe within-individual wave-to-wave changes in job quality over ages 61/62–69/70. Changes in working hours, employment characteristics (shifting to a non-permanent contract, the private sector and self-employment) and health were included as covariates. The typical individual who worked beyond pensionable age experienced statistically significant improvements in job quality. Improvements in psychosocial working conditions and job satisfaction were larger for those who reduced working hours and shifted from permanent to non-permanent contracts, from the public into the private sector and from wage-and-salary to self-employment. Work beyond pensionable age is a distinctive period, characterized by employment that becomes more flexible and rewarding and less stressful. These improvements are a function of older individuals’ preferences and ability to work fewer hours and transition to new lines of work.

  Read more about Changes in Job Quality as People Work Beyond Pensionable Age in Sweden

• The nature of paid work in the retirement years

  2021. Loretta G. Platts (et al.). Ageing & Society

  Article

  Ever more people are in paid work following the age of state pension availability, and yet the experience of working in this phase of the late career has been little studied. We interviewed a purposive sample of 25 Swedish people in their mid- to late sixties and early seventies, many of whom were or had recently been working while claiming an old-age pension. The data were analysed with constant comparative analysis in which we described and refined categories through the writing of analytic memos and diagramming. We observed that paid work took place within a particular material, normative and emotional landscape: a stable and secure pension income decommodifying these workers from the labour market, a social norm of a retired lifestyle and a looming sense of contraction of the future. This landscape made paid work in these years distinctive: characterised by immediate intrinsic rewards and processes of containing and reaffirming commitments to jobs. The oldest workers were able to craft assertively the temporal flexibility of their jobs in order to protect the autonomy and freedom that retirement represented and retain favoured job characteristics. Employed on short-term (hourly) contracts or self-employed, participants continually reassessed their decision to work. Participation in paid work in the retirement years is a distinctive second stage in the late career which blends the second and third ages.

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• How consistently does sleep quality improve at retirement? Prospective analyses with group-based trajectory models

  2021. Paraskevi Peristera (et al.). Journal of Sleep Research

  Article

  Growing evidence indicates that retiring from paid work is associated, at least in the short-term, with dramatic reductions in sleep difficulties and more restorative sleep. However, much is still not known, in particular how universal these improvements are, how long they last, and whether they relate to the work environment. A methodological challenge concerns how to model time when studying abrupt changes such as retirement. Using data from Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (n = 2,148), we studied difficulties falling asleep, difficulties maintaining sleep, premature awakening, restless sleep, a composite scale of these items, and non-restorative sleep. We compared polynomial and B-spline functions to model time in group-based trajectory modelling. We estimated variations in the individual development of sleep difficulties around retirement, relating these to the pre-retirement work environment. Reductions in sleep difficulties at retirement were sudden for all outcomes and were sustained for up to 11 years for non-restorative sleep, premature awakening, and restless sleep. Average patterns masked distinct patterns of change: groups of retirees experiencing greatest pre-retirement sleep difficulties benefitted most from retiring. Higher job demands, lower work time control, lower job control, and working full-time were work factors that accounted membership in these groups. Compared to polynomials, B-spline models more appropriately estimated time around retirement, providing trajectories that were closer to the observed shapes. The study highlights the need to exercise care in modelling time over a sudden transition because using polynomials can generate artefactual uplifts or omit abrupt changes entirely, findings that would have fallacious implications.

  Read more about How consistently does sleep quality improve at retirement? Prospective analyses with group-based trajectory models

• How does work impact daily sleep quality? A within-individual study using actigraphy and self-reports over the retirement transition

  2021. Johanna Garefelt (et al.). Journal of Sleep Research

  Article

  This study examined how the cessation of work at retirement affects daily measures of actigraphy-measured and self-rated sleep quality. Time in bed or asleep and stress at bedtime were examined as potential mechanisms. In total 117 employed participants who were aged 60-72 years and planned to retire soon were recruited to the Swedish Retirement Study. Sleep quality was measured in a baseline week using accelerometers, diaries, and questionnaires. Subjective sleep measures were sleep quality, restless sleep, restorative sleep, getting enough sleep, estimated wake after sleep onset, difficulties falling asleep, too early final awakening, and difficulties waking up. Actigraphy measures were sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, and average awakening length. After 1 and 2 years, the measurements were repeated for the now retired participants. Daily variations in sleep quality before and after retirement were analysed using multilevel modelling, with time in bed or asleep and stress at bedtime as potential mediators. We found that several self-reports of sleep improved (e.g., +0.2 standard deviations for sleep quality and +0.5 standard deviations for restorative sleep) while objective sleep quality remained unchanged or decreased slightly with retirement (e.g., -0.8% for sleep efficiency). Increased time in bed or asleep and stress at bedtime accounted partially for the improvements in self-rated sleep quality at retirement. In conclusion, actigraph-measured and self-reported sleep quality do not change in concert at retirement, highlighting the interest of studying both outcomes. The main effects of retirement from work concern subjective experiences of recovery more than sleep quality per se.

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• How does cessation of work affect sleep? Prospective analyses of sleep duration, timing and efficiency from the Swedish Retirement Study

  2021. Johnna Garefelt (et al.). Journal of Sleep Research 30 (3)

  Article

  Several strands of research indicate that work competes for time with sleep, but to what extent the timing and duration of sleep is affected by work is not known. Retirement offers a quasi-experimental life transition to study this in a within-individual study design. The few existing studies report that people sleep longer and later after retirement but mainly rely on self-reported data or between-individual analyses. We recruited 100 participants aged 61–72 years who were in paid work but would soon retire and measured them in a baseline week with accelerometers, diaries and questionnaires. After 1 and 2 years, the measurements were repeated for the now retired participants. Changes in sleep duration, timing, efficiency, chronotype and social jetlag were analysed using multilevel modelling. Gender, chronotype at baseline and partner's working status were analysed as potential effect modifiers. Sleep duration increased by 21 min, whereas sleep efficiency remained similar. Time of sleep onset and final awakening were postponed by 26 and 52 min, respectively, pushing midsleep forward from 03:17 to 03:37 hours. Changes in duration and timing of sleep were driven by weekday sleep, whereas weekend sleep stayed about the same. Social jetlag decreased but still occurred after retirement. Changes at retirement in sleep duration and timing were smaller for participants with a later chronotype and who had full-time working partners. These findings indicate that paid work generates sleep loss and hinders people from sleeping in line with their biological time.

  Read more about How does cessation of work affect sleep? Prospective analyses of sleep duration, timing and efficiency from the Swedish Retirement Study

• An Increasing Incidence of Upper Gastrointestinal Disorders Over 23 Years

  2021. Anna Andreasson (et al.). American Journal of Gastroenterology 116 (1), 210-213

  Article

  INTRODUCTION: We hypothesized that the prevalence of functional dyspepsia and gastroesophageal reflux disease in the community may be increasing.

  METHODS: Randomly selected adults were surveyed on 4 occasions: 1988 (n = 1,151, 21–79 years, response rate [rr] = 90%), 1989 (n = 1,097, 22–80 years, rr = 87%), 1995 (n = 1,139, 20–85 years, rr = 76%), and 2011 (n = 1,175, 20–93 years, rr = 63%).

  RESULTS: In functional dyspepsia, the odds of postprandial distress syndrome tripled over 23 years' follow-up (odds ratio [OR]: 3.55; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.60–4.84, mixed-effect regression analysis), whereas a small decrease in epigastric pain syndrome was observed (OR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.42–1.00). The odds of reporting gastroesophageal reflux disease doubled (OR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.50–2.73).

  DISCUSSION: The underlying mechanisms behind the increase in postprandial distress syndrome and gastroesophageal reflux disease remain to be determined.

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• Omvärdera synen på de äldres livsvillkor under pandemin

  2020. Loretta G. Platts, Lawrence B. Sacco, Boo Johansson. Läkartidningen

  Article

  Rekommendationen att alla äldre personer ska hålla sig hemma är ett uttryck för negativa stereotyper som utgår ifrån att äldre är passiva, sårbara och beroende av andra. Den riskerar att ytterligare begränsa personlig frihet och förstärka den sociala, ekonomiska och politiska marginaliseringen. Åtgärder för att skydda äldre från covid-19 behöver inriktas på hur vi kan främja ett aktivt, meningsfullt och tillfredsställande liv trots pandemin. Bättre kunskap om äldres livsvillkor behövs alltså som grund för nya rekommendationer. Vi föreslår att

  • äldre engageras (enskilt eller via pensionärsorganisationer) i diskussioner om hur man realistiskt och varaktigt kan skydda sig utan att behöva vara isolerad
  • äldre människors olika livsvillkor och levnadsförhållanden beaktas i nya och hälsofrämjande rekommendationer
  • nya rekommendationer måste stärka de äldres egen handlingskraft
  • nya rekommendationer ger bättre underlag för att väga riskerna för covid-19 mot ett hälsofrämjande socialt och fysiskt aktivt liv.

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• Informal Caregiving and Quality of Life Among Older Adults

  2020. Lawrence B. Sacco (et al.). Social Indicators Research

  Article

  Providing unpaid informal care to someone who is ill or disabled is a common experience in later life. While a supportive and potentially rewarding role, informal care can become a time and emotionally demanding activity, which may hinder older adults’ quality of life. In a context of rising demand for informal carers, we investigated how caregiving states and transitions are linked to overall levels and changes in quality of life, and how the relationship varies according to care intensity and burden. We used fixed effects and change analyses to examine six-wave panel data (2008–2018) from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH, n = 5076; ages 50–74). The CASP-19 scale is used to assess both positive and negative aspects of older adults’ quality of life. Caregiving was related with lower levels of quality of life in a graded manner, with those providing more weekly hours and reporting greater burden experiencing larger declines. Two-year transitions corresponding to starting, ceasing and continuing care provision were associated with lower levels of quality of life, compared to continuously not caregiving. Starting and ceasing caregiving were associated with negative and positive changes in quality of life score, respectively, suggesting that cessation of care leads to improvements despite persistent lower overall levels of quality of life. Measures to reduce care burden or time spent providing informal care are likely to improve the quality of life of older people.

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• How does cessation of work affect sleep?

  2020. Johanna Garefelt (et al.). Journal of Sleep Research

  Article

  Several strands of research indicate that work competes for time with sleep, but to what extent the timing and duration of sleep is affected by work is not known. Retirement offers a quasi-experimental life transition to study this in a within-individual study design. The few existing studies report that people sleep longer and later after retirement but mainly rely on self-reported data or between-individual analyses. We recruited 100 participants aged 61-72 years who were in paid work but would soon retire and measured them in a baseline week with accelerometers, diaries and questionnaires. After 1 and 2 years, the measurements were repeated for the now retired participants. Changes in sleep duration, timing, efficiency, chronotype and social jetlag were analysed using multilevel modelling. Gender, chronotype at baseline and partner's working status were analysed as potential effect modifiers. Sleep duration increased by 21 min, whereas sleep efficiency remained similar. Time of sleep onset and final awakening were postponed by 26 and 52 min, respectively, pushing midsleep forward from 03:17 to 03:37 hours. Changes in duration and timing of sleep were driven by weekday sleep, whereas weekend sleep stayed about the same. Social jetlag decreased but still occurred after retirement. Changes at retirement in sleep duration and timing were smaller for participants with a later chronotype and who had full-time working partners. These findings indicate that paid work generates sleep loss and hinders people from sleeping in line with their biological time.

  Read more about How does cessation of work affect sleep?

• Returns to work after retirement: a prospective study of unretirement in the United Kingdom

  2019. Loretta G. Platts (et al.). Ageing & Society 39 (3), 439-464

  Article

  Despite the complexity of the retirement process, most research treats it as an abrupt and one-way transition. Our study takes a different approach by examining retirement reversals (unretirement) and their predictors. Using the British Household Panel Survey (1991–2008), and following participants into Understanding Society (2010–2015), we undertake a survival analysis to investigate retirement reversals among Britons aged 50–69 years who were born in 1920–1959 (N = 2,046). Unretirement was defined as: (a) reporting being retired and subsequently recommencing paid employment, or (b) beginning full-time work following partial retirement (the latter defined here as reporting being retired and working fewer than 30 hours per week). A cumulative proportion of around 25 per cent of participants experienced a retirement reversal after reporting being retired; about half of these reversals occurred within the first five years of retirement. Unretirement was more common for participants who were male, more educated, in better health, owned a house with a mortgage (compared to owning it outright) and whose partner was in paid work. However, unretirement rates were not higher for participants in greater financial need, whether measured as subjective assessment of finances or household income quintiles. These results suggest that unretirement is a strategy more often used by those who are already advantaged and that it has the potential to exacerbate income inequalities in later life.

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Show all publications by Loretta Platts at Stockholm University