Life Expectancy Test: How Old will I Be when I Die

Nederlands
 
DeutschFor a hint how old you will be when you die, or at least how long a life insurance company expects you to live, you can fill in this questionnaire of 20 easy questions. This Life Expectancy test can only be used until the age of 70 and only if you are healthy. If for instance you have diabetes or a heart disease, this test is not applicable. Derived from science magazine Nature 429, page 149, year 2004.

There are no checks on what you fill in.

We start with 80 and add or subtract automatically.
If you are between 30 and 40 years, fill in: 1, between 41 and 50: 2, between 51 and 60: 3, between 61 and 70: 4.
If you are a woman, fill in: 3.
If you live in an urban area with more than 2 million inhabitants, fill in: -2, if you live in a village with less than 10,000 inhabitants, fill in: 2.
If one grandparent became older than 85, fill in: 2, if all grandparents became older than 80, fill in: 6.
If one parent died before 50 due to cardiovascular disease or cerebral haemorrhage, fill in: -4.
If a brother, sister or parent below 50 has cancer or a heart disease or diabetes since childhood, fill in: -3.
If you earn more than € 50,000, fill in: -2.
If you completed secondary education, fill in: 1, for higher education, fill in: 2.
If you are 65 or older and still working, fill in: 3.
If you live with a partner, fill in: 5.
If you live alone, fill in: -3, plus extra -3 for every 10 years you have lived alone since your were 25.
If you have an office job, fill in: -3, if you do heavy physical work, fill in: 3.
If you perform intense sporting for at least 30 minutes 5 times a week, fill in: 4, for 2-3 times a week, fill in: 2.
If you sleep more than 10 hours a day, fill in: -4.
If you have a relaxed personality, fill in: 3, for intense personality fill in: -3, for happy personality fill in: 1, for unhappy personality fill in: -2.
If you had a speeding ticket in the past year, fill in: -1.
If you drink more than 2 glasses of alcohol a day, fill in: -1, for more than 3 glasses: -2, for more than 4: -3, for more than 5: -4.
If you smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day, fill in: -13, for less than 20 per day fill in -9, for non-daily smoking, fill in -5.
If you have overweight of 50 pounds or more, fill in: -8, for 30-49 pounds fill in -4, for 10-29 pounds fill in -2.
If you are above 40 and have an annual checkup by a physician or (as a woman) by a gynaecologist, fill in: 2.
This is your Life Expectancy:

If you are disappointed with the result, don’t bother. It is only statistics and many factors are not within this test. Statistics are only applicable to large groups and no individual conclusions can be drawn. It only gives a hint, that’s all.

Advice for a Long Life

  1. Do not smoke!
  2. Little alcohol consumption,
  3. Do not live alone, but with a partner.
  4. No overweight,
  5. Sport regularly,
  6. No stress, lay down and relax.

On top of that, with the first four points you can save a lot of money.

Quote from the CBS article about life expectancy of smokers:

Quitting with smoking pays off, on all ages. Smokers quitting before the age of 35, have a similar life expectancy as never-smokers. Smokers quitting around 50, halve the risk.

 
The big surprise for me was: Bachelors die earlier. A social network lets you live longer.

Addiction Test (dutch)

CO2 emissions Test (dutch)

Life Expectancy Changes

Changes to original data in article by Nature 429, page 149, year 2004:

  1. Starting point for age and 2nd question adapted to CBS higher life expectancy for the Netherlands in 2012: 79.5 (rounded off to 80) years for men and 83.1 years for women (was: 73 and 80 years). The original data were for the US and from 2002 or earlier.
  2. Life expectancy for smokers lowered according to CBS data.
  3. Life expectancy due to alcohol consumption lowered according to data The Lancet.
  4. Originally the maximum life expectancy was 117 (for a woman). To be more realistic the life expectancy is limited to 100 years.

Below you can leave a reply, if you like (20 dutch comments).

Één reactie op “Life Expectancy Test: How Old will I Be when I Die”

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