Is your Ubble age 26? This means that your risk of dying in the next five years is equal to the average risk of dying in a 26-year-old Briton. For those who don’t know him yet, Ubble is the first “death calculator”. The principle is as simple as a quiz: you answer several questions online and Ubble gives you a quick “check up” free of charge. The die is cast. And the number displayed provides an estimate of the risk of death in the next five years. “The score can be measured online with a short questionnaire, without the need for lab tests or exams,” Andrea Ganna, researcher at the Karolinska Institute, based in Sweden, told AFP.
This tool can seem potentially depressing to those who are in low spirits. But it can let patients know if they are “at risk” people. it promotes early detection of certain diseases and encourages them to go to the doctor. This self-diagnosis – which does not have the value of a medical consultation – can therefore indirectly help Internet users to improve certain aspects of their daily lives if necessary.
A not infallible tool
To meet these goals, Swedish researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University refined the calculator questions by refocusing them on risk factors that can influence health and life expectancy: the tobacco, medical history, stress, and other lifestyle components.
The system was developed from the monitoring of 500,000 Britons aged between 40 and 70, registered with the UK Biobank, a medical database. The data collected were analyzed and sorted in order to identify a dozen factors, the association of which made it possible to assess the risk of death over five years. Rest assured, the calculator gives an estimate and its results are not infallible.
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