Multimorbidity and intention to retire: a cross-sectional study on 14 European countries

Objectives: To describe the association between multimorbidity and intention of retirement in Europe and to understand whether this relationship is modified by the working environment and disability integration policies. Methods: Participants were 11,790 employees aged 50–65 years old who responded to the sixth wave of SHARE project (2015). We modelled intention of retirement as a function of multimorbidity, adjusting for age, gender, education level, and household income by means of logistic models with country fixed effects. We then included the working conditions and an integration policy indicator as potential effect modifiers. Results: Overall, 36.6% of participants reported multimorbidity and 56.1% were willing to retire earlier. Multimorbidity was significantly associated with intention of retirement (OR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.37–1.84). Unfavourable working conditions were positively related to the intention to retire (OR = 1.99, 95% CI 1.53–2.58), while the integration policy was unrelated (OR = 1.84, 95% CI 0.80–4.23). Both did not modify the studied association (interaction terms: OR = 1.14, 95% CI 0.77–1.67, and OR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.58–1.24, respectively). Conclusions: Multimorbidity is associated with intention of retirement in Europe. This association was unaltered by working conditions and integration policies.