“The illnesses of old age appear a little later and we treat them better” – Libération

For statistician Thomas Deroyon, author of a study on life expectancy without disability published this Tuesday, December 31, the improvement in 2023 can be explained by improvements in medicine and prevention.

Encouraging news to end the year. In 2023, we lived better and longer than in previous years. At 65, women can expect to live another 12 years without disability, that is to say without being limited in the activities of daily life, and men 10.5 years, according to a study by the Research Department , studies, evaluation and statistics (Drees) published this Tuesday, December 31. A slight increase compared to 2022 (11.8 years of life expectancy without disability for women and 10.2 years for men). For Thomas Deroyon, statistician and author of the study, this improvement is due, among other things, to progress in medicine, prevention, and living conditions in general.

What is disability-free life expectancy?

This indicator divides the years of life expectancy between the years that are lived without health problems limiting people in their daily lives and the years that are lived with these health problems. We are based on the responses of a sample of approximately 25,000 people to the following question: “Have you been limited, for at least six months, because of a problem with