Twenty five years of HIV infection in haemophilic men in Britain: an observational study.

Discussion The long term survival of people who retire early at ages 55 or 60 is no better than that of those who retire at 65. On the contrary, mortality improved with increasing age at retirement for people from both high and low socioeconomic groups, defined according to employment grade. It is reasonable to assume that some workers retired at 55 because of failing health, as the mortality for this group in the first 10 years after retirement was almost twofold higher than that of their peers who continued working. The health status of those who retired at 60, however, was similar to those who continued working at 60. The finding of lower survival among employees of low socioeconomic status, regardless of age at retirement , is not unexpected and is consistent with other studies. 8–11 Similarly, it was not unexpected that men had statistically higher mortality than women and that those retiring in more recent years had better survival. Several studies found lower survival among those retiring early and attributed this to poor health status forcing early retirement. 1 3 Our study confirmed the finding of lower survival in people who take early retirement at age 55, but we did not find evidence of lower survival among those who retired at 60. To reduce potential bias due to differences in health status between early and late (age 65) retirees, we excluded survival for the first 10 years of follow-up after retirement at 55 and for the first five years after retirement at 60 for early retirees. Although the effect of early retirement because of failing health may not be totally eliminated, survival rates remained significantly greater for those who retired at 65 compared with those who retired at 55. The difference in survival between those who retired between 60 and 65 was, however, small and not statistically significant. Socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and mortality: results from a nationally representative prospective study of US adults. 9 Chandola T. Social class differences in mortality using the new UK national statistics socioeconomic classification. The first HIV seroconversion in the United Kingdom in a man with haemophilia was in 1979. 1 After HIV was identified, measures were taken to remove the risk of HIV transmission via blood products, and since 1986 no HIV infections have occurred through this route in the developed world. The epidemic is now 25 years old in haemophilic men. …