As a society, the retiring age of workers is increasing. Individuals are having to consider working to an older age (beyond 55 years), the reason being to pay off' debt, maintain a quality of life or, as a bigger picture, because society simply cannot afford the aging population. The Government is encouraging and promoting those approaching retirement to work to an older age to alleviate the financial burden of an aging population. In a working context those aged 55 years and over accounted for ten per cent of the Australian workforce in 1998 with this age group expected to account for half of the growth in the workforce between now and 2016. For the 60 - 64 years which account for less than three per cent in 1998, this group is expected to account for 15 per cent of the growth in the same period. As a result of individuals who have worked all their lives and in some cases physically hard', they do not fully enjoy their years of retirement as a time when they get to choose what they want to do rather than what they have to do. Of particular interest are the physical or health related conditions that individuals end up with and the restrictions that ensue resulting in an individual being incapacitated either physically or with respect to the state of their health._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Armstrong, M, 2005. Maintaining health and retiring healthy, in Proceedings Ninth Underground Operators' Conference 2005, pp 375-380 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).