None of us likes to think about dying, but maybe we should – especially if we can do something to lessen the risk. Thankfully, we can – thanks to more and more research into mortality predictors.
A recent study in The Lancet medical journal, called 5 year mortality predictors in 498 103 UK Biobank participants: a prospective population-based study, collected measurements from nearly half a million UK volunteers aged 40 to 70.
It is the first study to investigate such a large number of variables as well as examine different causes of death and to involve such a large number of participants.
A website – ubble.co.uk – has been set up to showcase the results of the study, which was conducted by Andrea Ganna and Erik Ingelsson. It also includes an online risk calculator based on the findings that you can use to check your own risk.
The findings show how accurately a variable can predict death within five years.
Using data in this way revealed five key results.
The data allowed Andrea and Erik to a create a risk calculator that could use questionnaire answers to predict an individual’s risk of dying within five years.
They used a computer-based approach to automatically select the combination of questions that gave the most accurate prediction of death within five years.
The calculator can use this prediction score to calculate an estimate of an individual’s ‘Ubble age’. You can take the test here.
If your Ubble age is higher than your actual age, you have a higher risk of dying within five years than the average person of your age in the UK. Conversely, if your Ubble age is lower than your actual age, you have a lower risk than the average person of your age.
The researchers hope publishing the findings on the Ubble websites will improve the awareness of individuals about their own health.
What do you think of the findings? Will you check your own ‘Ubble age’ and look at some of the mortality indicators that it might be within your power to change through exercise or diet?