TY - JOUR T1 - Physical Functioning in work and retirement: commentary on age-related trajectories of physical functioning in work and retirement —the role of sociodemographic factors, lifestyle and disease by Stenholm <em>et al</em> JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 493 LP - 499 DO - 10.1136/jech-2014-203945 VL - 68 IS - 6 AU - José Iparraguirre Y1 - 2014/06/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/68/6/493.abstract N2 - Stenholm et al1–henceforth, SW—look into the physical functioning of participants aged between 65 to 85 years in the Health and Retirement Study (a representative longitudinal survey of people aged 50 years or older in the USA). The authors report that physical functioning declined faster among the retired than among those individuals in full-time work, after controlling for age, sex, race, education, total wealth, body mass index, smoking, physical activity and chronic diseases. This note does not review SW nor presents a systematic review of the literature on the topic. (For a recent systematic review of longitudinal research of the effects of retirement on health, see refs.2 ,3.) (For a comprehensive review of the literature, see ref.4.) The objective is more modest: to highlight some of the central tenets of the existing and conflicting literature to put SW into the context of its wider research programme. After a brief description of the causal mechanisms as propounded by competing social theories, this paper discusses some methodological differences found in the literature, which are to a large extent at the bottom of the diversity in findings, concerning the indicators of retirement the influence of the jobs before retirement pathways to retirement, including early retirement the indicators of health status the focus on overall health or particular health conditions and diseases the choice of the time horizon the age cohorts the statistical approaches. Koopmans characterised empirical work with no theoretical foundation as an inquiry ‘groping for guidance’.5 When it comes to the effects of retirement on health, there is no dearth of theoretical underpinnings. However, none of the economic and social gerontological theories provide conclusive guidance about what to expect a priori regarding the sign of the direction. The human capital model developed by Grossman predicts that retirement … ER -