The Impact of Physical Work Demands on Need for Recovery, Employment Status, Retirement Intentions, and Ability to Extend Working Careers: A Longitudinal Study Among Older Workers

Objective: Prospectively investigating whether different approaches of physical work demands are associated with need for recovery (NFR), employment status, retirement intentions, and ability to prolong working life among older employees from the industry and health care sector.

Methods: A subsample from the Maastricht Cohort Study was studied (n = 1126). Poisson, Cox, and logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate outcomes.

Results: Perceiving physical work demands as strenuous was associated with higher NFR. Continuous physical strain was associated with being out of employment 4 years later. Employees with the highest amount of physical work demands perceived they were less able to prolong working life, although no significant associations between physical work demands and retirement intentions were found.

Conclusions: Overall, physical work demands were associated with adverse outcomes, with divergent insights for the different approaches of physical work demands.