Extended working life and its interaction with health, wellbeing and quality of life: a multi-country initiative (THRIVE)

Reasons for the study

Life expectancy is increasing in Europe and Canada. Yet increases in life expectancy are not experienced equally. Less skilled workers, for example, have a shorter life expectancy, an earlier onset of chronic illness and disability, and a greater likelihood of suffering multi-morbidities as they get older. Therefore, policy-makers in Europe and Canada face the dual challenge of extending health, quality of life and wellbeing into old age for all groups, while finding more effective and equitable ways of ensuring that all older people are treated fairly in strategies and policies intended to extend working life.

This project looked at how four countries—Canada, Denmark, Sweden and United Kingdom—are addressing similar policy problems regarding the ways in which health inequalities affect the opportunity to work later in life, with the aim of improving our understanding of extended working-life strategies and policies that take health inequalities into consideration.

Objectives of the study