According to an HSBC report, "The Future of Retirement: Healthy New Beginnings," not only would 72 percent of pre-retirees aged 45 and older retire within the next five years if they could, but 25 percent of them say it's because work has a negative impact on their mental and/or physical health. 37 percent of them say they can't retire when they want to, with 77 percent chalking that up to a lack of retirement savings.

But that's not all. Seventy-six percent of pre-retirees say that poor health will make saving for retirement tougher, which is probably not too surprising, considering that 67 percent of preretirees can't predict how much they might be likely to spend on health care during retirement. 61 percent said a partner falling ill would make saving for retirement more difficult.

That may not reflect how things actually work out, though. Among people who have already retired, just 18 percent said that poor health made saving for retirement more difficult, while 11 percent said that a partner falling ill made it harder to save.