Study Finds Retirees Don't Have Healthier Habits Than Their Working Peers

Adopting healthy lifestyle practices like eating well, exercising and managing weight are challenging when also juggling full-time work, children, school or care giving. Researchers had thought that retirement may help people launch a new start to healthy living.

They found that physical activity was likely to increase after retirement, but retired baby boomers were more likely to be obese and have high blood pressure than older working adults. The retirees were also no more likely to follow a healthy diet than working adults.

The study looked at various risk factors, including diet, exercise, smoking and blood pressure between retired adults and adults of the same age who were still working. 

Professor Dana King and health data analyst Jun Xiang at West Virginia University School of Medicine led the research, which was published this week in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.