Retirement? Other Ways Out of the Labour Market Are Far More Worrying for Health: Results from a Matching Approach Study.

ObjectiveDespite a growing body of research, the effects of retirement on health are not clear. The study explores the role played by the path out of the labour market (formal retirement vs. unemployment or family reasons), accounting for individual heterogeneity. Methods: Propensity score matching approach is employed on longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2015). Results: While health does not change significantly for those who formally retire, it worsens considerably for those who leave the labour market for other reasons. Moreover, health outcomes turn out to be highly heterogeneous, depending on individual socio-economic and job-related characteristics. Discussion: Leaving the labour market in one's mature years is a complex transition. Future research should focus on understanding and combating the causes of premature exit from the labour market, a relevant concern both in economic terms and on health grounds, in the light of our results.

Socio-demographic determinants of women's satisfaction with prenatal and delivery care services in Italy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which socio-demographic variables affect women's satisfaction regarding antenatal and perinatal care. DESIGN: To take into account the role of the context in shaping women's satisfaction, we used multilevel models, with women at the lower level, and the health districts of residence, or the hospitals in which the delivery took place, at the higher level. SETTING: Tuscany (Italy). PARTICIPANTS: The study is based on a representative survey focused on the satisfaction and experience of 4598 new mothers who gave birth in one of the 25 hospitals in Tuscany (Italy) in 2012. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women's overall satisfaction in the prenatal period and their overall satisfaction during hospitalization for delivery. RESULTS: Regarding pregnancy, women's satisfaction increased with age, and was generally higher among foreign women coming from non-Western countries and among highly educated women. Regarding delivery, age proved insignificant, whereas citizenship and education maintained the same association with satisfaction. Contrary to our expectations, the number of previous pregnancies turned out to be insignificant. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the quality of maternity services was perceived differently in different socio-demographic groups: women's expectations affected satisfaction, but in different ways, in various socio-demographic groups, both during pregnancy and at delivery. Keeping these socio-demographic factors into account in the analysis of satisfaction may help organisations to identify areas where pregnancy and delivery services can be better targeted and where increasing awareness among professionals in their everyday practice is most needed.

On the beginning of mortality acceleration.

Physiological senescence is characterized by the increasing limitation of capabilities of an organism resulting from the progressive accumulation of molecular damage, which at group (cohort) level translates into, among other things, an increase in mortality risks with age. Physiological senescence is generally thought to begin at birth, if not earlier, but models of demographic aging (i.e., an increase in mortality risks) normally start at considerably later ages. This apparent inconsistency can be solved by assuming the existence of two mortality regimes: "latent" and "manifest" aging. Up to a certain age, there is only latent aging: physiological senescence occurs, but its low level does not trigger any measurable increase in mortality. Past a certain level (and age), molecular damage is such that mortality risks start to increase. We first discuss why this transition from latent to manifest aging should exist at all, and then we turn to the empirical estimation of the corresponding threshold age by applying Bai's approach to the estimation of breakpoints in time series. Our analysis, which covers several cohorts born between 1850 and 1938 in 14 of the countries included in the Human Mortality Database, indicates that an age at the onset of manifest aging can be identified. However, it has not remained constant: it has declined from about 43 and 47 years, respectively, for males and females at the beginning of the period (cohorts born in 1850-1869) to about 31 for both males and females toward its end (cohorts born in 1920-1938). A discussion of why this may have happened ensues.