A STUDY OF PERCEIVED STRESS AND HEALTH COMPLAINTS AMONG RETIREES AND NON-RETIREES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/jah.v11i06.2269Keywords:
Retirement, Retirees, Non-retirees, Perceived stress, Health complainsAbstract
Retirees (n = 50) and non-retirees (n = 50) with an age range between 58 to 65 years were selected from two cities, Chandigarh and Karnal (India), and their responses were recorded through an interview schedule regarding their age, marital status, job, retirement, income and their viewpoint on retirement. Two scales i.e., Perceived Stress Scale, PSS and Adult Health Checklist, AHC were applied. Three hypotheses were tested and the first one relates to expected difference between retirees and non-retirees on their perceived stress. Percentage distribution of stress experienced by retirees and non-retirees showed that 22% of the retirees found retirement as a stressful event in comparison to 12% of the non-retirees. The student’s t-values revealed that difference between the perceived stress in retirees and non-retirees are highly significant (t =2.660, p<0.01). The second hypothesis that retirees and non-retirees are expected to differ on health complaints. Percentage distribution of responses of the sample revealed that 50% of the non-retirees self-rated their health to be as good as compared to 44 % of the retirees and 24% of the retirees reported their health to be excellent as compared to 20% of the non-retirees. Mean scores of retirees (17.2) in Adult Health Checklist are significantly higher than that of non-retirees (13.92). The third hypothesis is that perceived stress is positively correlated to health complaints in retirees and statistical analysis of the obtained results of significant positive correlation between perceived stress and health complaints in retirees supported this hypothesis. It can be concluded from these observations that retired life is stressful and leads to increased health complaint.
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