ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2018
Retirement and Socioeconomic Differences in Diurnal Cortisol: Longitudinal Evidence From a Cohort of British Civil Servants.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Measuring salivary cortisol in biobehavioral research: A systematic review and methodological considerations.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Review
- Is prenatal arsenic exposure associated with salivary cortisol in infants in Arica, Chile? An exploratory cohort study.Annals of agricultural and environmental medicine : AAEM · 2019Article
- Allostatic Load and Effort-Reward Imbalance: Associations over the Working-Career.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Objectives: Early old age and the period around retirement are associated with a widening in socioeconomic inequalities in health. There are few studies that address the stress-biological factors related to this widening. This study examined whether retirement is associated with more advantageous (steeper) diurnal cortisol profiles, and differences in this association by occupational grade. Method: Data from the 7th (2002-2004), 8th (2006), and 9th (2007-09) phases of the London-based Whitehall II civil servants study were analysed. Thousand hundred and forty three respondents who were employed at phase 8 (mean age 59.9 years) and who had salivary cortisol measured from five samples collected across the day at phases 7 and 9 were analysed. Results: Retirement was associated with steeper diurnal slopes compared to those who remained in work. Employees in the lowest grades had flatter diurnal cortisol slopes compared to those in the highest grades. Low-grade retirees in particular had flatter diurnal slopes compared to high-grade retirees. Discussion: Socioeconomic differences in a biomarker associated with stress increase, rather than decrease, around the retirement period. These biological differences associated with transitions into retirement for different occupational groups may partly explain the pattern of widening social inequalities in health in early old age.
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