Each year brings its share of changes in the field of health and well-being. In 2026, several concrete measures are modifying the prevention pathway, vaccination, and even protection against therapeutic deviations. Rather than providing an exhaustive list, let’s focus on the developments that truly change the game for patients and professionals.
My Prevention Assessment: Physiotherapists Join the Loop
You may already be familiar with the My Prevention Assessment scheme, a free appointment designed to review your health habits. Until now, only doctors, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists could conduct it.
Since October 2026, physiotherapists can also carry out this assessment. The information comes directly from the Ministry of Health. In practical terms, this means broader access to prevention, especially for people who regularly consult a physiotherapist without necessarily seeing their general practitioner every quarter.
The benefits are twofold. First, physiotherapists have direct expertise in physical activity, postural sleep, and stress management through movement. Second, in areas where general practitioners are scarce, they often maintain regular follow-ups with patients. To keep up with the latest from the Medadvice site, this type of development is part of the structural changes that deserve close attention.
Flu and Pneumococcus Vaccination: What Changes in Recommendations
Vaccination recommendations often evolve through discreet adjustments. This year, the High Authority of Health clarified its position on two related topics.
Flu: Towards a Requirement for Certain Professionals
The HAS recommends maintaining vaccination for individuals aged 65 and over living in communal settings. The new aspect concerns healthcare professionals: a vaccination requirement is recommended for those in contact with at-risk individuals, particularly in nursing homes and long-term care units.
This is not yet a legal obligation, but an official recommendation. The distinction is significant. It paves the way for decisions within establishments, with direct consequences on the organization of work in the medico-social sector.
Pneumococcus: Prevenar 20 for At-Risk Infants
The HAS now recommends the Prevenar 20 vaccine for infants and children with risk factors. This development targets a specific audience and does not change the general vaccination schedule, but it illustrates an underlying trend: increasingly differentiated vaccination recommendations based on profiles.
For parents, this implies a more detailed discussion with the pediatrician or general practitioner during vaccination appointments.
Health Sectarian Deviations: A Practical Guide to Spotting Risks
Have you noticed the increase in alternative wellness practices in recent years? Yoga, sophrology, naturopathy: some are regulated, others much less so. The line between legitimate support and sectarian influence remains blurred for many people.
At the end of September 2026, Miviludes and the Ministry of Health published a new guide aimed at professionals and users. This document provides benchmarks to identify:
- The signs of psychological influence exerted by a practitioner (gradual isolation of the patient, systematic anti-conventional medicine discourse)
- Risky practices that lead to abandonment of care, particularly among patients with chronic conditions
- Situations where reporting is possible, incorporating the changes from the law of May 10, 2024, on strengthening the fight against sectarian deviations
This guide does not aim to prohibit complementary practices, but to provide concrete tools to distinguish serious support from potential deviation. For wellness professionals who operate within the rules, it is also a way to stand out from charlatans.
Prevention and Daily Well-Being: Practices Gaining Ground
Beyond institutional measures, several trends are changing the way the French take care of their health on a daily basis.
Breathwork and thermotherapy (hot-cold alternation, cold baths) have become common practices. These approaches are no longer just gadgets: they are integrated into programs offered by spas, specialized hotels, and even certain wellness retreats structured around yoga or pilates.
Sleep has become a central pillar of well-being strategies. Digital detox initiatives, for example, are now presented as a direct lever for improving sleep quality, rather than an end in itself. The approach has changed: we no longer talk about “unplugging for the sake of unplugging,” but about specific rituals aimed at reducing screen exposure in the hour before bedtime.
Personalized nutrition is also progressing, driven by a better understanding of the role of the gut microbiome. The idea is no longer to follow a universal diet, but to adapt one’s diet to one’s digestive profile. This trend is still challenging to implement without professional guidance, but it increasingly influences food choices.
Lifestyle and Innovation: Convergences to Watch
What characterizes this year is the convergence between institutional prevention and individual well-being practices. The My Prevention Assessment scheme, targeted vaccination recommendations, and the anti-sectarian deviation guide share a common goal: to make the health pathway clearer and more tailored to each situation.
Wellness trends follow the same logic. The development of practices like breathwork or thermotherapy in regulated settings (spas, retreats, specialized hotels) shows that the wellness sector is also seeking to structure itself and gain credibility.
The real novelty of 2026 is not an isolated technique or device. It is the fact that medical prevention and daily well-being are gradually ceasing to be two separate worlds. Physiotherapists conducting prevention assessments are a good example: the movement professional is also becoming a player in overall prevention.
