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HEALTH

France’s 2017 health report: The French are living longer but not so healthily

The French can expect to live longer lives than people living in other developed countries but those years might not be spent in the best health, a new report shows. Here's what else it said about health in France.

Published: 10 November 2017 17:24 CET
France's 2017 health report: The French are living longer but not so healthily
Photo: Flickr
The study published every two years by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) compared people's health across 35 developed nations. 
 
In France, people born today can expect to live to 82.4 years compared to an average life expectancy of 80.6 years. 
 
This puts France in sixth place behind the likes of Japan, where people have the highest life expectancy at 83.9 years and Spain and Switzerland, where in both countries people can expect to live to a very respectable 83-years-old. 
 
The study also showed that France has one of the lowest rate of deaths caused by heart attack, only behind Japan and South Korea. 
 
READ ALSO: 

Question: Just how healthy is the French health system?

Photo: AFP
 
But while life expectancy might be high and a fatal heart attack less likely than elsewhere, the French aren't living out their years in the best health, the report shows.
 
The rate of dementia including Alzheimer's in France is higher than the average
 
The figure stands at 20 cases of dementia out of every 1000 people which is put down to France's aging population. 
 
The health study also showed that France has a lower than average rate of overweight and obese people, with 49 percent of people over the age of falling into these categories compared to 54 percent. 
 
And the same went for air pollution with the average annual exposure of French people to fine particles at 12.4 micrograms / m3, against 15.1 in the average of OECD countries.
 
However the report isn't all good news for the French, with tabacco and alcohol consumption higher than the average seen across the nations included in the OECD study. 
 
Over the age of 15, a massive 22.4 percent of the French population smokes against an average of 18.4 percent and they drink 11.9 litres of pure alcohol each a year, compared the average of nine litres. 
 
The report also warns against the overuse of antibiotics, with the French using them 50 percent more compared to other developed countries. 
 

HEALTH

Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

Denmark's government has struck a deal with four other parties to raise the point in a pregnancy from which a foetus can be aborted from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, in the first big change to Danish abortion law in 50 years.

Published: 3 May 2024 08:06 CEST
Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

The government struck the deal with the Socialist Left Party, the Red Green Alliance, the Social Liberal Party and the Alternative party, last week with the formal announcement made on Monday  

“In terms of health, there is no evidence for the current week limit, nor is there anything to suggest that there will be significantly more or later abortions by moving the week limit,” Sophie Løhde, Denmark’s Minister of the Interior and Health, said in a press release announcing the deal.

The move follows the recommendations of Denmark’s Ethics Council, which in September 2023 proposed raising the term limit, pointing out that Denmark had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Western Europe. 

READ ALSO: 

Under the deal, the seven parties, together with the Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives, have also entered into an agreement to replace the five regional abortion bodies with a new national abortion board, which will be based in Aarhus. 

From July 1st, 2025, this new board will be able to grant permission for abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy if there are special considerations to take into account. 

The parties have also agreed to grant 15-17-year-olds the right to have an abortion without parental consent or permission from the abortion board.

Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s minister for Digitalization and Equality, said in the press release that this followed logically from the age of sexual consent, which is 15 years old in Denmark. 

“Choosing whether to have an abortion is a difficult situation, and I hope that young women would get the support of their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother,” she said. 

The bill will be tabled in parliament over the coming year with the changes then coming into force on June 1st, 2025.

The right to free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. 

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