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Medical researchers in San Francisco have created a quiz that predicts how long you’re going to live
[i.e how many years you will live into retirement – if any!]. It’s called a ‘mortality index‘ and it’s composed of 12 questions. To create the index, the researchers tracked 20,000 Americans over the age of 50, for a decade. 6,000 of them dropped out – like, permanently.
To ballpark your own mortality (Give it a try!), you simply answer questions like these:
- Are you a man? If the answer is ‘yes’, give yourself 2 points right off the top. If you’re not sure, give yourself one point just in case.
- Have you ever been diagnosed with…cancer [other than skin cancer]? Ka-ching! Take another 2 points.
- What about smoking? If you inhaled, add another two points.
- Hey, remember that time you moved the old sofa to the basement? That was surprisingly hard, wasn’t it? Ka-ching!
Each time you answer, ‘yes’, it means more mad money to spend in the here and now.
Dr. Stephan Fihn, a University of Washington professor of medicine and health quality measurement specialist with U.S. Veterans Affairs health services in Seattle, said the index seems valid and “methodologically sound” but he said it probably would be most accurate for the oldest patients, i.e. those who don’t need a scientific crystal ball to figure out their days are numbered [whether they are in retirement or not].
The comments above are edited ([ ]) and abridged (…) excerpts from an article by Rita Silvan
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