To travel. Enjoying her grandchildren. Take up pottery or simply enjoy a well-deserved rest. Everyone has their own vision of a dream retirement. With one thing in common: enjoy it as long as possible in good health.
But while the government’s pension reform project provides for an extension of working hours, bringing the legal retirement age to 64, and a day of mobilization is scheduled for Thursday, the question arises of healthy life expectancy. When it has to last longer, is work really health? Will this leave time for us, tomorrow’s retirees, to take advantage of this period of life?
A variable hope in France
“We are living longer and so we have to work longer and retire later,” said in July 2021 Emanuel Macron. In terms of life expectancy at birth – the maximum age one can hope to reach – the Head of State was telling the truth, in Europe, France is one of the best students. On average, it is 85.3 years for women and 79.2 years for men, according to INSEE. “But it evolves with age, and at 81, you still have 7 years of life expectancy”, underlines Dr Jérôme Marty, general practitioner and president of French Union for Free Medicine (UFML).
On the other hand, in terms of life expectancy in good health, France loses points, and the French years. “At birth, it is in France only 65.4 years for women and 63.9 years for men, an average of 64 years, says Dr. Christophe de Jaeger, physiologist specialist in aging, president of the French Society of Medicine and Physiology of Longevity. And this is an extremely worrying parameter, because it is very young. So postponing the retirement age to 64 makes some people say to themselves: “I’m going to work until I’m 64, then I’m going to get sick”. Fortunately, with age, life expectancy in good health increases: at age 65, it is 10.5 years for women and 9.4 years for men, according to the DREEs. Stable figures, which are no longer progressing.
But what is healthy life expectancy? “It is a reflection of the quality of a health system and a point that people are particularly interested in: it is the part of life led in good health, the ability to live independently, to do freely what one has to desire, whether it be to work, travel, and simply to feel good in body and mind,” explains Dr. de Jaeger.
Disparities according to professions and income
“However, there are very significant disparities”, underlines the specialist in aging. Because, depending on occupations and incomes, a wide gap can widen: the wealthiest workers have 13 years of life expectancy more than the most modest, according to INSEE. Similarly, life expectancy in good health is “very linked to professional activities, some of which wear out the body, abounds Dr. Marty. It will be shorter for those who have a very physical job, who work outdoors in all weathers. Shorter also for certain occupations that are very sedentary and exposed to stress, leading to the development of cardiovascular pathologies. All of them reach retirement age worn out”.
On the other hand, “someone who has a job that they love and are passionate about will have a longer healthy life expectancy, and will choose to retire later,” notes Dr. de Jaeger. But factors other than work affect life expectancy in good health: “There are regional disparities, and factors related to pollution, precariousness and food, addictions to alcohol and tobacco adds Dr. Marty.
Factors that generate “an explosion of chronic pathologies compared to a time when we lived better for a long time: cardiovascular and endocrine diseases, diabetes, hypertension. However, the chronically ill develop even more acute pathologies such as infarction and stroke, ”specifies the general practitioner. In practice, “if you are hypertensive and diabetic, you are not really in good health, even if the treatments provide a balance,” adds Dr. de Jaeger.
Improving prevention and adapting workstations
“This raises the issue of primary prevention, as defined by the WHO: how to avoid getting sick? It is an essential element of public health, continues the specialist in aging. There, it depends on each individual, their genes, their environment, their lifestyle and their motivation to stay healthy. To achieve this, you must be ready to change certain behaviors: abolish tobacco and alcohol, eat less and better, not too sweet, because excess sugar is a very important mechanism of bad aging. And have a regular physical activity, not necessarily sporty, but an activity that includes both resistance work to have a certain level of muscle, and both cardio training work.
But, if everyone knows these common sense measures, “very few apply them correctly”, he laments. To remedy this, and “because health problems generally appear between the ages of 50 and 60, you have to be proactive, from the age of 50, and be accompanied by your attending physician, who is there to support good health, and not only pathology”. And if it is necessary to be proactive, “it is important to remain active, insists Dr. de Jaeger. This is a common trait in those who age healthily longer. This can be work, but also the fact of investing in an association, leisure. It’s about not withdrawing from life and society.
But professional activity can reach its limits. “Imagining people who have difficult jobs retiring later is coming up against a reality that those behind the reform do not seem to see,” insists Dr. Marty. Tell a nurse’s aide that she will retire at 64 or 65, when she carries bodies all day and has her back broken at 50 from lifting patients, that’s a no-no. meaning. If we do not adapt workstations and retirement by profession, it is a dead end, and a risk of reducing life expectancy in good health”.
