The association between health and retirement: self-health assessment of Israeli retirees.

Self-health evaluation and health behavior after retirement were compared with the retrospectively self-assessed health state of the pre-retirement period. The data of 310 former industrial and service workers were examined within the context of the 'Health, Stress and Coping' mechanism, with retirement representing the potential psychological stress. The findings negate the hypothesis that retirement is responsible for worsening health conditions leading to over-utilization of medical services. The decline in the perceived health state, that had already started 6 to 1 year before retirement is not ascribable to this life change event per se, but rather to the normal biological ageing processes.