People in France can now assess their health with a new free online tool that evaluates habits such as sleep, diet, and exercise levels - including asking users to perform some physical tasks at home.
The CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, the national scientific research centre) launched the platform, called Mouv’en Santé, on March 17. It includes a series of questions on your lifestyle and habits, in a bid to assess whether your lifestyle is likely to keep you in good health or not.
The initiative is also supported by the l'Agence nationale du sport (national sports agency), the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and the Ministry of Sport. Its stated aims are to “first and foremost raise awareness among the general public of the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle”.
Examples of questions include:
Do you have high blood pressure?
Do you have asthma?
What time do you go to bed at night?
What sport or exercise do you do?’
The tool also offers users recommendations on how to improve their habits - and therefore, improve their long-term health - if their lifestyle could be improved.
Research drive
The platform also states that it seeks to “collect essential data on the levels of physical activity and the living conditions of the French population”.
The data collected is anonymised so it can be used by researchers to help in scientific studies aimed at improving public health. No identifying details of the participants can be seen by researchers.
The data “will be made available to the scientific community to generate new questions and research projects that will serve to document and inform public health policies”, the CNRS said in a press release.
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The researchers hope that “Mouv'en Santé will be the first large-scale national survey” on physical activity in France. So far, the platform is set to remain available for three years.
“We haven't got a barometer of commitment to physical activity yet [in France] – and Mouv' en Santé aims to provide just that,” said one of the researchers, Olivier Rey.
Another researcher on the study, Eric Journaux, said: “The decline in people's physical condition is now a civilisational issue. At this rate, we're heading right for a cataclysm in the next 10 years or so with dramatic repercussions for the health of young adults.
“We can already see it happening with the increase in early-onset conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardio-respiratory issues in people under 40.”
A screenshot of the new platform, Mouv’en SantéSport.cnrs.fr/mouv-en-sante
Go to the website and register (“Je m’inscris”). It is free.
Answer a set of questionnaires, which are divided into several categories: medical history, sports practice, screen time, and mental well-being.
Carry out some simple physical tests at home.
These physical tests are designed to assess your flexibility, muscle strength and coordination. They include:
Touching your toes with your legs stretched out
Standing on one foot with your eyes closed
Getting up from a chair
Alternating between sitting and standing as quickly as possible
Be sure to set aside considerable time for a thorough test and response, however. The CNRS warns that the entire process can take up to two hours, although you do not have to answer the questionnaires in every category at once.
You can save your progress and return to the site to continue later.
It is recommended that users repeat the tests every few months to ensure a continuous at-home monitoring of their basic health.
Health in France
Physical activity levels in France have room for improvement, suggested a 2022 report by national food and health agency ANSES, which found that “only 5% of adults have sufficient physical activity” to be protected against poor health in future.
However, other studies suggest that people in France still fare better than the public in other countries when it comes to health.
This study stated that people in France have fewer cardiovascular issues in comparison to other Western European countries, and “analysis shows that French health indicators are among the best in Europe”, the researchers said.
Similarly, people in France have more years of good health than average in Europe, with people reaching the age of 77 for women and 75.5 for men before poor health begins to hinder them, stated a report from national statistics research agency DREES (Direction de la recherche, des études et de l’évaluation des statistiques), published on December 31, 2024. Plus, life expectancy is rising.
Yet, a recent report by the World Health Organization, published earlier this year, found that while France has low obesity and heart disease rates in comparison to other countries, its cancer diagnoses are high.
