Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 10829 CHAPTER 1  |  WORKING LONGER Renna and Thakur (2010) show that those with obesity are more likely to retire before age 64 because of its effects on physical impairments and diseases that limit work. Preventing obesity or reducing obesity could have important impacts on health. The Future Elderly Model (FEM) uses the rich health and health care data in HRS to develop long-term forecasts of health and health care costs and allows researchers to test the potential impact of various medical interventions. For example, Michaud et al. (2012) use the model to evaluate the impact of medical and pharmaceutical inter- ventions to reduce obesity and find that bariatric surgery yields high social benefits relative to drug treatments. Another study leverages the HRS linkage to Medicare records to study excess medical spend- ing related to obesity. Clark et al. (2016) show that higher obesity-related Medicare spending is present only for adults aged 65 to 69. Spending for obese and severely obese adults in this age group is nearly twice that of normal-weight claimants. Interestingly, for those who are aged 70 and older, there is no difference in Medicare claims between normal-weight and even severely obese adults. Impact of Health and Economic Resources on Retirement Elucidating the complex interplay of health, eco- nomic resources, and retirement is at the heart of HRS objectives. The dynamic relationships among health, financial resources, and decisions about work can unfold over many years leading up to retirement, which is part of why the HRS seeks to enroll participants at middle age. Poor health can deplete economic resources through direct out-of- pocket medical (OOPM) costs, but it can also hin- der wealth accumulation through lost wages when people are too sick to work and may also affect work decisions. Very poor health is often a reason for leaving the work force; on the other hand, low wherewithal can delay workforce departure. One study assesses the impact of health on asset accumulation during working years and the indi- rect impact of health through asset accumulation on retirement (Miah and Wilcox-Gök 2007). Poor health is associated with a higher probability of retiring. But those with a chronic health condition (asth- ma, cancer, heart disease, stroke or diabetes) ac- cumulate fewer financial resources for retirement, which tends to keep them on the job. The majority of those with a chronic illness do not report poor health or activity limitations, which may be why they are able to stay on the job despite having a health condition. The detailed longitudinal health information in the HRS helps clarify these com- plex relationships. Financial resources interact with health to predict retirement. Men in good health are not likely to retire without fairly substantial econom- ic resources behind them (Bound et al. 2010). On the other hand, men in poor health are 10 times more likely than similar men in average health to retire even without pension benefits. There is a substantial effect of self-reported poor health on retirement. A potential problem arises in the study of health and work, namely, when people are in poor health and are considering leaving the workforce, their self-report of health can also reflect their sense of justification for leaving work. So rather than relying solely on self-reported health status, the study creates an index of health that includes the range of detailed health measures available in the HRS. Use of the health index reduces the strength of the association between health and retirement. However, poor health remains a potent predictor of retirement. A limitation of many studies looking at the effect of health and economic status on retirement is that they do not include complete measures of Those with obesity are more likely to retire before age 64 because of its effects on physical impairments and diseases that limit work.