https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9344-6578
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Zhang Zhang, Qing Gong, Donna Gilleskie, Jeremy G Moulton, Sean Y Sylvia, The Impact of Multimorbidity on Labor Force Participation Among the Middle-Aged and Older Working Population in the United States, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 79, Issue 10, October 2024, gbae131, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae131
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Abstract
Multimorbidity, known as multiple chronic conditions (MCC), is the coexistence of two or more chronic health conditions (CHC). The near-retirement-age population with MCC is more likely to experience discontinued labor force participation (LFP). Our objective was to evaluate the impact of MCC on LFP among adults aged 50–64 and to explore heterogeneous effects between self-employed and non-self-employed workers.
We constructed our sample using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from 1996 to 2018. We adopted an individual fixed-effect (F.E.) model and propensity score matching (PSM) to measure the impact of MCC on the probability of being employed and changes in annual work hours.
50.5% of respondents have MCC. Individuals with MCC exhibit a predicted probability of being employed that is 9.3 percentage points (p < .01, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: −0.109, −0.078) lower than those without MCC. Compared with non-CHC, MCC significantly reduced annual working hours by 6.1% (p < .01, 95% CI: −0.091, −0.036) in the F.E. model and by 4.9% (p < .01, 95% CI: −0.064, −0.033) in PSM estimation. The effect is more pronounced for the self-employed with MCC, who have 13.0% (p < .05, 95% CI: −0.233, −0.026) fewer annual work hours than non-CHC based on the FE model and 13.4% (p < .01, 95% CI: −0.197, −0.070) in PSM estimation.
MCC significantly reduces LFP compared with non-MCC. MCC has a heterogeneous impact across occupational types. It is important to support the near-retirement-age working population with multimorbidity through effective clinical interventions and workplace wellness policies to help manage health conditions and remain active in the labor market.
