Stress Observatory
How do the French view stress and its effects?
- Nearly 9 out of 10 French people are stressed , and nearly 4 out of 10 have seen their stress increase over the past 3 years. 60% of women and 57% of young people are concerned.
- In the short term, the French believe that stress has an impact on their sleep (54%), their behavior (40%) and their family life (26%), and 8 out of 10 are convinced of the impact of stress on their long-term health.
- Among the diseases proven to be caused by stress: psychological pathologies, overweight and diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, as well as digestive, cardiovascular and dermatological disorders.
- Scientific research on the subject doubled between 2007 and 2017. It focuses on the impact of stress on psychological disorders (24%), cancers (22%) and weight and diabetes (20%).
"9 out of 10 French people experience stress, and identify it as the cause of a number of pathologies. The priority set by our Observatory was therefore to objectivize the medical consequences of stress and the associated pathologies, in order to determine the cases where stress prevention would have a real impact on the state of health of the French, and thus take more targeted action".comments Dr Stéphane Locret, Director of the Ramsay Sante Foundation Foundation's scientific advisory board ..
The 1st edition of the Stress Observatory consists of 2 parts:
- a survey conducted in October 2017 with OpinionWay aimed at defining French people's relationship with stress
- medical stress mapping with Kap Codea start-up specializing in health signal research on social networks, comparing :
- pathologies associated with stress by the French via a scan of publications on social networks between 2007 and 2016,
- the state of medical research publications on stress over the last 10 years,
- and the results of an Inserm study on proven stress-related pathologies.
Are the pathologies that the French associate with stress true?
As part of the Observatoire du Stress, the Ramsay Sante corporate Foundation, with Kap Code, analyzed the pathologies that the French associate with stress, based on 8,958 conversations observed on social networks between 2007 and 2016. It then compared this perception with the results of an Inserm study highlighting proven stress-related pathologies:
- The consequences of stress on mental health are the most represented, with a 56% share of the vote. These concern sleep quality, burn-out, emotional suffering, addictions, etc. Medically proven pathologies, as shown by the Inserm study.
- Then come more general disorders, such as asthenia or tinnitus... with 15% of citations. However, according to Inserm, there is no proven link between stress and these pathologies.
- Pathologies linked to diabetes and overweight account for 13% of mentions. These pathologies are well established.
- Then, with a share of less than 10%, we find musculoskeletal disorders (tremors, contractures...) at 7%, digestive pathologies (5%) such as nausea, ulcers and abdominal pain, respiratory disorders, dermatological pathologies (psoriasis, eczema, acne), gynecological and andrological diseases (infertility, hot flushes, hair loss) and cardiovascular pathologies (tachycardia). With regard to these pathologies, while musculoskeletal disorders, digestive diseases, cardiac affections and dermatological pathologies are well proven, this is not the case for respiratory or gynecological disorders.
Stress, the evil of the century: it affects 89% of French people, and has been on the rise for 38% of them over the past 3 years
50% of French people consider themselves to be fairly or very stressed, particularly women (68% vs. 38% of men), 25-34 year-olds (57%) and people living in north-eastern France (57%). While stress has increased over the past 3 years for 38% of French people, this is even more the case for those who are already highly stressed, 78% of whom have seen their stress increase over the past 3 years. The main causes of stress are professional life (36%), financial problems (35%), personal life (33%) and health problems/chronic illnesses (31%). It should be noted that professional life is the primary cause of stress for men (40%) and the under-35s (47%), personal life (family life, children, etc.) for women (39%), and health problems for the over-35s (36%).
In terms of consequences, the French are well aware of the impact of stress on their lives:
- In the short term, they see it as having a major impact on the quality of their sleep (54%), and on their behavior, causing nervousness or irritability (40%).
- In the long term, 83% of French people believe that stress has an impact on their health, and this is even truer for the highly stressed, who number 95%. In detail, 70% believe that stress causes long-term sleep problems, 57% psychological problems and 51% heart problems.
To combat stress, sport (55%) and relaxation/yoga/meditation (45%) are considered the best allies.
In addition to sport, 58% of the most stressed French prefer medical solutions, such as consulting a health professional (31%), using alternative medicine (19%) or taking medication (18%).
But in practice, almost 1/3 of French people still do nothing to combat stress.
Stress: where does scientific research stand?
The Ramsay Sante corporate Foundation, in conjunction with Kap Code, has also analyzed the scientific literature on stress over the last 10 years. This revealed that 24% of research on stress analyzed its impact on mental health (insomnia, emotional suffering...), 20% on metabolic diseases (diabetes, overweight...) and 14% on cardiovascular disease.
Furthermore, while the corpus analyzed on social networks makes no mention of cancer as a consequence of stress, nor has Inserm demonstrated a causal link, it should be noted that over the last 10 years, 22% of scientific articles relating to stress have focused on its involvement in various forms of cancer.
Methodology :
- Survey conducted online, from October 4 to 6, 2017, using the CAWI method, by OpinionWay for Ramsay Sante corporate Foundation among a sample of 1,017 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over.
- Kap Code study for Ramsay Sante corporate Foundation of the representation of stress on social networks between 2007 and 2016.
- Kap Code analysis for Ramsay Sante corporate Foundation of scientific publications reporting on the notion of psychological stress between 2007 and 2017.
- Inserm study on the mechanisms linking stress and pathologies, 2010.