The Department of Studies and Statistics of the Social Ministries (Drees) published Thursday, February 23 the results of a study on life expectancy in good health from 65 years. At this age, a man can expect to live another 11.3 years without being disabled in daily life, and a woman 12.6 years, according to statistics calculated from 2021 data. These results are up from 2020, where healthy life expectancy was 10.2 years for men and 11.8 years for women.
In France, recalls the DREES, “life expectancy at birth is steadily increasing, but not all of these years are necessarily lived in ‘good health'”. This is why, since 2018, it has published an indicator that measures life expectancy in good health.
According to the DREES, the indicator of disability-free life expectancy at age 65 has increased since 2008: by two years and eight months for men and two years and seven months for women, she specifies. Among the years remaining to be lived at age 65, the proportion of those that will be lived without disability rose from 47.7% to 59.3% between 2008 and 2021 for men. For women, it went from 44.7% to 54.4%.
In 2020, the most recent year for which this data is available for all European countries, France ranked tenth among the 27 member countries of the European Union, with a level above the European average (eight months) . For women, France ranks fifth, above the European average (more than one year and eight months).
The impact of Covid-19 to be taken into account
According to the statistics body, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the evolution of life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy. In 2020, the indicators for life expectancy in good health had stagnated and those for life expectancy had even dropped. The two indicators nevertheless started to rise again in 2021.
The DREES qualifies these results, which must be, according to it, “analyzed with caution”. “These indicators are based on estimates of the share of the population reporting being limited for at least six months in the activities that people usually do because of a health problem”, she says. These estimates are obtained from surveys, normally conducted face-to-face, but which, due to the pandemic, had to be carried out by telephone in 2020 and 2021, which may have distorted the results. “Some of the people declaring limitations in their activities are more difficult to reach by telephone than face to face, which may have led to underestimating the prevalence of limitations in the population”, explains the Drees. The latter also evokes the context of restriction of movement and activities linked to confinements and curfews. “People with health issues may have felt less limited during the pandemic […] because the whole population was restricted in its activities”recalls the organization.
According to the DREES, we will have to wait for the data collected in 2022, a year synonymous with “end of most restrictions caused by the Covid-19 epidemic”to determine whether the increase in indicators related to healthy life expectancy observed in 2021 continues, “outside the context of travel restrictions”concludes the DREES.