For a long time, France was one of the European countries with the lowest infant mortality. But that era is now over. For the past ten years, the number of deaths of young children has once again been on the rise in France. In 2021, 2,700 children under the age of one died in France, i.e. 3.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 3.5 around 2012. This is revealed by a summary published by Insee on June 14th.
“Since 2015, infant mortality in France has been higher than the European average, whereas it was one of the lowest in Europe at the end of the 20th century. Indeed, unlike France, infant mortality in Europe continues to decline on average, albeit moderately in recent years.” Between 1980 and 2020, France moved from fifth to eighteenth position in the European mortality ranking of children under 1 year old.
“Difficult to determine precisely the causes of this increase, because we lack data. But we can all the same evoke some tracks. The development of obesity and smoking in the mother lead to a higher risk of premature death in children “, explains to L’Express Andreas Werner, pediatrician and president of the French association of ambulatory pediatrics (AFPA).
Île-de-France supports the rise
This increase can be observed throughout the country, but it is far from homogeneous. The Île-de-France Regional Health Observatory (ORS) explains in particular in a note that “for more than three decades, the Île-de-France region has presented more unfavorable perinatal and child health indicators than those of metropolitan France. “. The Paris region alone accounts for more than a quarter of all deaths of children under one year old.
A state of affairs that does not really surprise Andreas Werner: “We can consider certain parts of the Île-de-France region as medical deserts. The density of pediatricians there is very low, and the quality of support for parents is therefore necessarily weaker.”
Infrastructure and poverty
The increase in infant mortality in the region is mainly driven by the department of Seine-Saint-Denis: “In Seine-Saint-Denis, there were 2,788 deaths of 0-1 year olds between 2001 and 2019, which represents 20.8% of all deaths domiciled in the region The infant mortality rate in this department has remained above the regional average over the past two decades (around 5‰) and the difference tends to widen further since 2016,” according to the report.
Andreas Werner makes the link between the level of poverty in the department and these alarming figures: “In the poorest departments, we often observe a lower rate of breastfeeding, a higher prevalence of obesity among parents, and more frequent smoking. Each risk factor adds up, and increases the risk for the child in the end”.