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Life expectancy: better to live in the city than in the countryside

2020-12-16T16:31:40.984Z


The Association of Rural Mayors of France warns of the deterioration of life expectancy in the countryside.


Live in the city or the countryside?

Since the first confinement, many French people have wondered.

But based on health indicators, it is better to live in urban areas to live longer.

A new study published Wednesday, December 16 by the Association of rural mayors (AMRF), in partnership with

France Bleu

, draws a clear observation of the deterioration of the health situation in rural areas.

The inhabitants of hyper-rural departments live on average 2.2 years less than those born in hyper-urban areas.

Read also: Bercy's plan to fight against medical deserts

The advantages of country living are no longer immediately apparent, when it is impossible to see a general practitioner for several months.

Thus, the life expectancy of the rural world is reduced from year to year.

There is an

"aggravation over the last thirty years between the rural departments and the urban departments",

confirms Emmanuel Vigneron, professor of the universities in Montpellier and specialist in the territorial approach to health.

According to this survey, in 2019, men are the worst off with 2.2 years less life expectancy at birth, against 0.9 years for women.

The gap in life expectancy has worsened over the past thirty years: it was only 0.2 to 0.3 years for a child born in 1990.

Since the 2000s, rural mayors in France have been confronted with a growing lack of access to medical care in their municipality.

Some of their citizens even give up seeking treatment.

The president of the AMRF, Michel Fournier deplored this observation on

France Info

, Wednesday morning: "

There is no longer this notion of equality between the rural and the urban environment, we want real measures."

S

ccording to the mayor, inequality increases because "

desertification of local medicine.

"

Read also: In 2019, 7.4 million French people lived in a medical desert

The published figures confirm the assertion of the president of the AMRF: 20% of the inhabitants in rural areas consume less hospital care than the inhabitants of the cities.

A child born in 2019 in a hyper-rural department has a life expectancy of 78.5 years, while a man of the same age born in a hyper-urban environment will live on average 80.7 years.

It appears that the less urbanized your department, the shorter your life expectancy.

Isabelle Dugelet, mayor of Gresle, a rural town in the Loire department, is pessimistic for the years to come.

The inhabitants of its sector have only 2 doctors for 10,000 inhabitants.

According to this mayor, there is a real urgency: “

We must set up a territorial network, a distribution of doctors throughout the territory.

"

This reality of lack of access to health care worries all rural mayors on the ground.

The health situation is expected to worsen due to the retirements of doctors.

According to the first vice-president of the AMRF, Dominique Dhumeaux, “

it is obvious that within 3 or 4 years, the figures will show that life expectancy will have further deteriorated in the countryside compared to the city.

The AMRF believes that "

the state has given up in the

face of territorial fractures, and"

that nothing is being done to combat them. "

The mayor of a village in Eure-et-Loir tried to find a solution in 2019 for the inhabitants of his rural commune.

John Billard has created a medical tele-consultation cabinet in the town hall of le Favril, in order to compensate for the lack of doctors in the area.

In our municipalities, rural mayors have long alerted the government on this subject.

There are not enough doctors in France and the few trained do not want to come to our territories.

It is public health that is at stake ”,

this mayor of Eure-et-Loir

told

Le Figaro

.

On

France Info,

the president of the AMRF believes that it is necessary to force doctors to come and settle in these territories.

We are not taking specific measures for these medical deserts.

It's still dramatic.

This means that in France, there is no longer any equity.

There is no longer this notion of equality that we must have between the urban environment and the rural environment.

And that is serious,

”denounced Michel Fournier.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-12-16

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