Think you’ll live to be 100? Take this 35-question quiz to find out how likely you are to live a long, healthy life
- Longevity scientists have designed a quiz estimating someone’s life expectancy
- Those who score highly in the quiz are most likely to reach 100 years old
- READ MORE: Centenarians reveal how they made it to a three-figure age bracket
Think you’re on track to become a centenarian? This quiz may help you find the answer.
Researchers in New York have designed a 35-question survey that predicts just how likely someone is to reach a three-figure age.
It takes into account lifestyle, diet and genetic factors to come up with an estimate, with those scoring the highest — 80 to 100 points — seen as being on track to live a long and healthy life.
It comes amid rising concerns over 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 have blamed a combination of rising obesity rates, Covid and stagnant economic conditions for the drop.
Pictured above are two questions from the quiz designed by longevity scientists at NOVOS. It takes into account someone’s lifestyle, diet and genetic factors to reach an estimate
The survey, which only takes about five minutes to complete, was created by scientists at longevity company NOVOS.
It was designed using dozens of studies involving hundreds of people that looked at individuals’ lifestyles and genetic risk factors and then how long they lived.
After responding to the questions, NOVOS uses an algorithm weighing up the different factors 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-aligned one’s lifestyle is to longevity compared to one’s peers.
‘Nobody in the history of the test has scored 100.
‘The average person scores between 50 to 59, and less than 1% of participants score 90 or above. Your score is not your age.’
What do centenarians have in common?
Those lucky enough to have made it to their hundredth birthdays have shared their secrets to living a long, healthy life.
Those who receive the highest scores are on track to live a long and healthy life, the survey creators said.
The questionnaire begins by asking users about their daily lives such as how they sleep, brush their teeth, their number of close friends and exercise.
Underappreciated for decades, sleep has recently emerged as a major factor in helping to boost someone’s longevity — through at least seven hours a night and a consistent sleep schedule.
The survey then turns to questions on whether someone feels stressed, is angered easily and how they cope with stress.
It is already known that stress boosts levels of inflammation in the body, which can lead to more damage to DNA and cells causing them to age faster.
A total of 15 questions — or nearly two-thirds — are then dedicated to someone’s diet and nutrition.
Users are asked about how often they eat healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish.
But the quiz then also quickly turns to those sweet things that may not be the best for someone’s health like cookies, chips, cakes and snack bars.
There are also questions on alcohol consumption — with researchers still trying to find a proven physical health benefit for this — and how often someone consumes a high-fat soft drink.
The jury is still out on the role that diet plays in how long someone lives.
Studies have suggested that following a poor diet high in processed foods and sugars, yet low in fruits and vegetables, can shorten someone’s life expectancy.
But should someone be sticking to a healthy diet, there is little evidence that this could boost their longevity without other changes such as undertaking exercise.
The final ten questions on the quiz are on someone’s family risk factors — whether relatives have had cancer or heart disease before — and other factors such as their sex, age and whether they are married or obese.
Life expectancy at birth for both sexes in 2021 is 76.4 years — its lowest level since 1996 when it was 76.1 years. Life expectancy for men has dropped more than for women between 2021 and 2020 — male life expectancy by 0.7 years and females by 0.6
A total of 3,464,231 deaths were registered in the US in 2021. The 10 leading causes of death accounted for 74.5 percent of all US deaths in 2021. Unintentional injuries include drug overdoses
Users are then emailed a score ranging from zero to 10, for those that did worst, to 90 to 100, for those that did best.
There is no directly comparable age linked to each figure, but researchers said those with a higher score would live longer.
US life expectancy has crashed to its lowest level since 1996, official data has revealed.
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 just 76.4 years.
It is the second consecutive year that life expectancy has fallen, after tumbling 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 for the second year in a row in 2021, and a five-fold increase in drug overdose deaths over the past decade – fueled by a ferocious rise in fentanyl contamination – has also contributed to the decline.
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