REPORT. On the sidelines of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the CNRS is launching a participatory study to encourage the French to take part in physical activity

Launched on Monday alongside the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the CNRS Mouv’en Santé project aims to encourage the French to play sport.

The CNRS and its partners (Inserm, Grande Cause Nationale 2024, Bouge 30 mn par jour, the National Sports Agency, the Ministries of Research and Sports) are launching a major participatory study to assess the sports habits of the French, and the impact of their activity on their health. The project is called Mouv’en Santé and was launched on Monday, July 29 at the Club France in the Grande Halle de la Villette, in Paris, where athletes, partners and the public, seduced by the initiative, meet.

At the CNRS stand, in front of the Grande Halle de la Villette, Julien attracts visitors with a strange handle that must be squeezed very hard with one hand: “The test is very simple to do. It’s a ‘hand grip’, you keep your arms straight along your body and you squeeze as hard as you can. Go all the way! And then, you release.” With the device in her hands, Syna plays the game with her friends.

The engineering student registers immediately: “I did a lot of sport when I was young. With my studies, I had to stop, but I try to always stay close to sport, especially through the job I’m going to do later. It still interests me.” The young man often sees different studies and varying figures on the French relationship with sport, but he has not “never knew anyone who participated” to one of them. This Mouv’en Santé project allows him “to be as close as possible to scientific studies”.

Olivier Rey, a researcher at the Institute of Movement Sciences, is supervising this project for the CNRS. “We do these tests because we know that manual grip strength is directly correlated with overall health and reveals a capacity for endurance, strength and speed,” he explains.

“We believe we can change the relationship with physical activity.”

Olivier Rey, researcher in charge of the Mouv’en Santé project

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Noah, a young woman, recognizes it: “I like sports, but I don’t do them. If I have a goal, I tell myself that maybe I’ll do more.” Once registered on the CNRS website, Noah and Syna will do flexibility, agility and balance tests from home. They will also answer questions about their eating habits, sleep, etc.

Olivier Rey would like to encourage them to move more: “The population most affected is children and adolescents who are big consumers of screens, in particular, and who adopt sedentary behaviors.” According to him, the recommendations of “eat five fruits and vegetables a day” and of “move 30 minutes a day”, “It’s good, but it’s not enough, it doesn’t work in itself”. “By involving the French in this research project where they become actors, we believe we can change the relationship with physical activity”he adds.

The aim of this participatory study, led by the CNRS and its partners, is also to create a database on the physical condition of the French. An initial assessment will be made in three years. It is also possible to pre-register and find out about the study on the Mouv’en Santé website.