This is not new, social inequalities are also found in access to care. If they sometimes decrease significantly, they persist and can have dramatic consequences. This is what emerges from the latest annual report on the state of health of the population in France, published by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees). Prevalence of chronic diseases, risk of forgoing treatment, less frequent screening… From an early age, inequalities are marked among children depending on the socio-professional category of the parents. And throughout life, the risk of developing a chronic disease remains higher among the poorest people than among the richest. Even life expectancy, where the gap between the richest and the poorest is around 13 years for men and 8 for women!
“The first killer in the world is misery and poverty, and France is no exception”, recently observed in the columns of the “World” Mahmoud Zureik, professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin (Yvelines ). But “so far, policies have hardly targeted the most disadvantaged to reduce these health inequalities.” The health minister has promised preventive action. Will they reach the audience who need it most?
