The transition to retirement can be both a positive and a negative time. For some it is a time to relax and enjoy life; for others it can mean the loss of social connections, purpose and income. There has been a lot of research that has shown that retirement can also have positive or negative effects on health. However, we do not really know why this is. Some people believe that it is because leaving work can affect how much exercise you do: for example some people will be more active in retirement, but others might be unable or unwilling to be more active. Retirement might also affect other ‘health behaviours’, such as our diet and how much alcohol we consume. There are also some suggestions that it might affect our sleep. But there is so much we still do not know.
Dr Hyde is working on a proposal for a study to try to find out more about how retirement affects these sorts of behaviours amongst people in Wales, and he needs your help. Although he has been doing research on retirement and health for twenty years he has not retired and – as he says - it will be quite a few years before he would be able to retire – so he has no first-hand experience of this. So he really wants to hear from people who are approaching retirement or who have retired to get to know these issues better and make sure that we would collect the right sort of information in the proposed study.
CADR are looking for around ten people to help them, and are planning to have an initial Zoom meeting for an hour in early July. They will fix a date that people can make. If you are not familiar with Zoom then Dr Hyde would be happy to telephone you personally at a convenient time.
If you are willing to participate, your role would be to help him develop the research idea and interpret the results of the study. The actual study will be a survey with people who are approaching and entering retirement in a number of companies across Wales. The purpose of the reference group is to ensure that the ideas, experiences and voices of older adults are included in the research design so that we ask the right types of questions to get the right type of information to help us understand these issues.
Dr Hyde would like the group to meet with him at up to three times: once in the development of the grant (i.e. for an hour in early July). Then if the grant is funded once more for an hour in the early stages of funding in order to design the survey (probably around March next year) and then again for an hour once the data come in to help him with the interpretation of the results (probably around March 2022).
Please email Catherine Gale at CADR if you require any additional information.
