Employee age and health

• This study examines the relationship between age and health in employee samples.
• Meta-analytical results indicate that age, by and large, is not related to poorer mental health.
• However, age was weakly and positively related to clinical measures of poor physical health.
• These findings suggest that, contrary to common age stereotypes, older workers do not have significantly poorer health.

One particularly persistent and prevalent negative age stereotype is that older workers experience more health problems. This study examines whether this negative age stereotype is evidence-based or not. In a meta-analysis of previous studies on the relationship between age and health, we found that older employees suffered no declines in either mental health or self-reported physical health problems, but did experience modest declines on clinical indices of physical health (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol level, and body mass index). The article concludes with directions for future research on the role of health in the age–performance relationship and its implications for management practice.