Your life expectancy is one of the factors that determine life insurance rates. It’s also one of the factors you should consider when buying insurance, to ensure your family is well prepared — whether your life span is shorter or longer than you expect.
Using the calculators listed below, you can get an idea of your life expectancy — and more importantly, you can get an idea of changes you can make to increase your life span.
In this day and age, we have a lot more information about how to improve and maintain our state of health through lifestyle choices. We know if we eat healthy, exercise regularly, sleep well and keep stress to a minimum, we can lead longer, healthier lives.
Of course, genetics, fate and other factors also contribute to longevity, and no one knows for sure how long we will live. These tests can indicate your life span in a general sense, and give you some ideas for making positive changes.
So take the tests, and try making some positive lifestyle changes to see how they affect both the quality and quantity of your life.
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- Abaris -Abaris is a US-based longevity calculator developed by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. It’s a simple test, very user friendly with a colourful interface, and the questions are easy to answer. As the site was developed for selling annuities, it also suggests financial strategies for retirement.
Why it’s useful: The answers clearly indicate how making lifestyle changes can change your longevity by giving you specific suggestions. For example, if you answered that you exercise 1-2 times per week, the site will tell you how much longer you might live if you increase frequency.
- Abaris -Abaris is a US-based longevity calculator developed by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. It’s a simple test, very user friendly with a colourful interface, and the questions are easy to answer. As the site was developed for selling annuities, it also suggests financial strategies for retirement.
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- Project Big Life – A Canadian initiative, Project Big Life’s mission is to “engage people and organizations by providing meaningful health risk information.” It is run by 5 researchers and uses data from medical, lifestyle and even air pollution calculators (which is why they ask for your postal code). The life expectancy calculator is just one of the online tests you can take.
Why it’s useful: On your results page, you can find out your biggest health risk, choose to compare your results with others and, very conveniently, print out a report for your health care provider. You can also find out how many years you are losing to various lifestyle choices — which is highly motivating.
- Project Big Life – A Canadian initiative, Project Big Life’s mission is to “engage people and organizations by providing meaningful health risk information.” It is run by 5 researchers and uses data from medical, lifestyle and even air pollution calculators (which is why they ask for your postal code). The life expectancy calculator is just one of the online tests you can take.
- Life Expectancy Calculator – This test, in the Body and Health section of Canada.com, is very straightforward and asks the kind of questions you would expect a doctor or other medical professional to ask.
Why it’s useful: The test results offer detailed information about factors that contribute to longevity and general — not custom — suggestions for how to increase health, and therefore longevity, are included.
Summary: It’s interesting to take all three tests and see how you compare. I got 94, 88.4 and 91, respectively. And a bit of a wake-up call about exercising more. Off I go!
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