LONDON (Reuters) - WORKING conditions must be improved for older people if governments and companies are to persuade them to continue contributing to economic growth into their old age, according to Swedish and British scientists.

Researchers analysed almost 15,000 employees in France and found that they felt increasingly less well in the years leading up to retirement, but dramatically better after they stopped work - suggesting they saw work as harmful to their health.

'Our findings should cause concern for policy makers attempting to convince workers to stay longer in the workforce,' said Professor Hugo Westerlund of Stockholm University's stress research institute, who conducted the study with colleagues from University College London.

The study, which took annual surveys of the workers' self-rated health, found that between the year before retirement and the year after, the risk of workers saying they were not well fell from 19 to 14 per cent - a drop the researchers said corresponded to a gain in health of eight to 10 years.

'Put another way, in terms of the risk of suboptimal health, people suddenly got eight to 10 years younger when they retired,' they wrote. And the retirees continued to feel better throughout the seven years the study followed them.

Populations are ageing across the developed world and many governments are already making moves towards raising the age of retirement to try to cope with the potential explosion in extra costs to health and social services. The study was published in The Lancet medical journal on Monday.

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