Do you think you’re on your way to being a centenarian? This quiz can help you find the answer.
Researchers in New York have designed a 35-question survey that predicts how likely someone is to reach a three-digit age.
It takes into account lifestyle, diet and genetic factors to arrive at an estimate, with those who score the highest – 80 to 100 points – being seen as on track to live long and healthy lives.
It comes amid rising concerns about the drop in life expectancy in the US, with the average person now expected to reach 76.1 years ? down from 78.8 years in 2019. Experts blame a combination of rising obesity rates, Covid and stagnant economic conditions for the drop.
Above are two questions from the quiz designed by longevity scientists at NOVOS. It takes into account a person’s lifestyle, diet, and genetic factors to arrive at an estimate
The questionnairewhich only takes about five minutes to complete was created by scientists at NOVOS, a long-lived company.
It was designed using dozens of studies involving hundreds of people, looking at individuals’ lifestyles and genetic risk factors and then how long they lived.
After answering the questions, NOVOS uses an algorithm that weighs the various factors against each other to calculate a score from 1 to 100.
Chris Mirabile, who founded the company, told DailyMail.com: ‘The score is on a scale of one to 100 and is intended to provide context for how well a person’s lifestyle is aligned with longevity compared to one’s peers.
?Nobody in the history of the test has scored 100.
?The average person scores between 50 and 59, and less than 1% of participants score 90 or higher. Your score is not your age.’
Those who get the highest scores are on their way to living long and healthy lives, the survey’s creators said.
The survey begins by asking users about their daily lives, such as how they sleep, brush their teeth, how many close friends they have, and exercise.
Sleep has been undervalued for decades and has recently emerged as an important factor in extending one’s lifespan – through at least seven hours a night and a consistent sleep schedule.
The research then moves on to questions about whether someone feels stressed, is easily angry and how they deal with stress.
It is already known that stress increases inflammation levels in the body, which can lead to more damage to DNA and cells causing them to age faster.
A total of 15 questions – or almost two-thirds – are then devoted to a person’s diet and nutrition.
Users are asked how often they eat healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish.
But the quiz quickly moves on to those sweet things that may not be the best for someone’s health such as cookies, chips, pies and snack bars.
There are also questions about alcohol consumption – with researchers still trying to find a proven health benefit for this – and how often someone consumes a high-fat soft drink.
The jury is still out on the role diet plays in how long a person lives.
Studies have suggested that following a poor diet high in processed foods and sugars, but low in fruits and vegetables, can shorten a person’s life expectancy.
But if someone sticks to a healthy diet, there’s little evidence that it could extend their lifespan without other changes, such as exercise.
The last ten questions of the quiz are about a person’s family risk factors – whether relatives have had cancer or heart disease before – and other factors such as their gender, age, and whether they are married or obese.
Life expectancy at birth for both sexes in 2021 is 76.4 years – the lowest level since 1996, when it was 76.1 years. The life expectancy of men fell more than that of women between 2021 and 2020: life expectancy of men by 0.7 years and that of women by 0.6 years
In 2021, a total of 3,464,231 deaths were recorded in the US. The 10 leading causes of death accounted for 74.5 percent of all deaths in the US by 2021. Unintentional injuries include drug overdoses
Users are then emailed a score ranging from zero to 10, for those who did the worst, to 90 to 100, for those who did the best.
There isn’t a directly comparable age associated with each grade, but researchers said those with a higher score would live longer.
Life expectancy in the US has fallen to its lowest level since 1996, according to official data.
It comes after a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that the average American born in 2021 would live to be just 76.4 years old.
It is the second consecutive year that life expectancy has fallen, after falling from 78.8 years in 2019 and 77.0 years in 2020. It is now at its lowest level since 1996, when it was 76.1 years.
Covid was the third leading cause of death in 2021 for the second year in a row, and a fivefold increase in drug overdose deaths over the past decade ? fueled by a savage rise in fentanyl contamination ? has also contributed to the decline.
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