Test predicts chance of dying after 50

Accra, Feb. 16(GHP) -- Researchers have designed a new test that can help determine your chance of dying within the next four years.

Aimed at the over 50s, the 12-question test doesn't ask what you eat, but it does ask if you can push a living room chair across the floor.

The more points you get, the greater your risk. Zero to 5 points says your risk of dying in four years is less than 4 per cent. With 14 points, your risk rises to 64 per cent. Points accrue with each four-year increment after age 60.

The quiz, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, covers topics including age, BMI (body mass index), smoking, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and trouble with daily activities due to poor health or memory problems.

The test is based on data involving 11,701 Americans over 50 who took part in a national health survey in 1998. The research analyzed participant outcomes during a four-year follow-up period.

This test is roughly 81% accurate and can give older people a reasonable idea of their survival chances, according to Dr Sei Lee, a researcher at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Centre, who helped develop the test.

"Even if somebody looks at their numbers and finds they have a 60 per cent risk of death, there could be other mitigating factors," said co-author and VA researcher Dr Kenneth Covinsky.

There are things you can do to improve your chances, he notes, such as quitting smoking or taking up exercise.