Being married increases your life expectancy compared to being single, as does being happy. The major reason life expectancy calculators spit out such different figures is because there are a wide range of factors influencing the results. As I’m 54, this may not have been a completely fair test of My Longevity because the data the team has used makes the app most accurate for the over 60s. I compared my life expectancy prediction from My Longevity with calculators provided by the UK Office for National Statistics and those of two insurance companies. How seriously you should treat the predictions from an app of this type is basically a function of how accurately it reflects the sub-population into which you best fit. But anyone expecting to see the same beneficial effects on health from prescribing orange juice to everyone taking a boat trip today is going to be deeply disappointed. This is because discrepancies exist between trial subjects and populations for a number of reasons – but usually they are cases of what is known as “tight segmentation” working against you.įor example, a clinical trial of the effects of orange juice in sailors with scurvy will show profound benefits because they are a tight segment with vitamin C deficiency. kurhan/ Shutterstockĭeveloping the app has involved dealing with some problems along the way in estimating potential health benefits for the overall population based on those seen in clinical trials. This allows its app to factor in the life expectancy effects of controlled and uncontrolled high blood pressure, the presence of related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease or rheumatoid arthritis, ongoing treatment with statins, and serious risk factors, such as high cholesterol.Ĭhronic health conditions, high chlesterol, and high blood pressure all affect life expectancy. The team of researchers used a sophisticated version of this approach when developing their app, informed by its previous research. Doing this might involve subdividing the population by sex (on average females live longer than males) or smoking status (for obvious reasons) or both. So the more a disparate population can be broken down into sub-populations who have traits in common – but which are still large enough to be statistically significant – the more accurate predictions become. Life expectancy depends a lot on where you grow up or live. In the UK, life expectancy at birth is now over 80 years. This was achieved through a combination of scientific discoveries and public health measures that drove down infant mortality. This is different from lifespan, which is the maximum length of time any member of the species can survive.Īlthough lifespan has changed very little – if at all – global life expectancy has soared by more than 40 years since the beginning of the 20th century. Simply put, life expectancy is how long, on average, members of any given population can expect to life.
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