Yet another how-long-you're going-to-live calculator
I had no sooner finished my posting Today is the first day of the rest of your life. How many more might there be? (Redux) than I came across yet another longevity test; this one is "The Original Death Calculator: Life-Expectancy Quiz" designed by one Dr. David J. Demko, described as a professor of gerontology (at what university not given), accessible at the website www.demko.com.
This calculator begins at age 79 and then lists 30 questions to obtain plus years to add and minus years to deduct. Many of the questions are similar to those in the Paris Match and the "Eons" calculators described in the (Redux) posting below: Longevity of grandparents, Family history of vascular disease, Healthy Diet, Smoking, etc. However, some others are unique among the three calculators: "Where is your ancestral home?" (ranging from minus 2 for the USA to plus 3 for Japan), "Do you volunteer on a weekly basis?" (plus 2 if you do, minus 1 if not), "Left-handed" (minus 1 if so, 0 if not), "Height over 5ft, 8 inches," for men only (minus 6 months for every inch). It also includes a question about owning pets (plus 2 if you do)–the lack of which in the other two surprised me, as I noted in (Redux); but it did not include one about being a parent–which also surprised me about the other two.
I did my calculation using the Demko calculator and came up amazingly close to my longevity according to the "Early Warning" and the "Eons" ones: the Demko one has me living to age 86, whereas the other two both said 87. The Demko website states that the 30-question calculator is a "sub-set" of the "Original Death Calculator," which contains 201 questions. This "original" calculator is available on a CD-ROM for $19.95 from www.amazon.com. I am thinking of ordering it; if I do, I’ll do a posting about it.
This calculator begins at age 79 and then lists 30 questions to obtain plus years to add and minus years to deduct. Many of the questions are similar to those in the Paris Match and the "Eons" calculators described in the (Redux) posting below: Longevity of grandparents, Family history of vascular disease, Healthy Diet, Smoking, etc. However, some others are unique among the three calculators: "Where is your ancestral home?" (ranging from minus 2 for the USA to plus 3 for Japan), "Do you volunteer on a weekly basis?" (plus 2 if you do, minus 1 if not), "Left-handed" (minus 1 if so, 0 if not), "Height over 5ft, 8 inches," for men only (minus 6 months for every inch). It also includes a question about owning pets (plus 2 if you do)–the lack of which in the other two surprised me, as I noted in (Redux); but it did not include one about being a parent–which also surprised me about the other two.
I did my calculation using the Demko calculator and came up amazingly close to my longevity according to the "Early Warning" and the "Eons" ones: the Demko one has me living to age 86, whereas the other two both said 87. The Demko website states that the 30-question calculator is a "sub-set" of the "Original Death Calculator," which contains 201 questions. This "original" calculator is available on a CD-ROM for $19.95 from www.amazon.com. I am thinking of ordering it; if I do, I’ll do a posting about it.
posted by Mycroft Watson at 3:24 PM
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
1 Comments:
Dr. Demko's Death Calculator is included in a book published by Next Decade, Inc. called "Live Well Now, Dr. David Demko's Anti Aging Plan to Youth'n Your Life" ($18.95 retail)available through all retailers, including Amazon.com or the publisher at www.nextdecade.com
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