ArticleBMC medical informatics and decision making2016
How old are you, really? Communicating chronic risk through 'effective age' of your body and organs.
Article in BMC medical informatics and decision making, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Translating Mortality Hazard Ratios into Remaining-Lifespan Measures in Older Adults Using Japanese Complete Life Tables: A Deterministic Reference-Table Study.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
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- Non-laboratory-based cardiovascular risk assessment: 10-year absolute risk, predicted heart age and intervention requirements in a Nigerian population.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2026Article
- Air pollution is linked to divergent cortical thickness patterns in brain regions vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease.Neurotoxicology · 2026Article
- Biological age and clinical frailty scale measured at intensive care unit admission as predictors of hospital mortality among the critically ill in Western Australia: a retrospective cohort study.Acute and critical care · 2025Article
- Codesigning a Digital Type 2 Diabetes Risk Communication Tool in Singapore: Qualitative Participatory Action Research Approach.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Mortality of type 2 diabetes in Germany: additional insights from Gompertz models.Acta diabetologica · 2024Article
- Left ventricular hypertrophy as a risk factor for accelerated brain aging: Results from the Study of Health in Pomerania.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- Biological age is superior to chronological age in predicting hospital mortality of the critically ill.Internal and emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Repurposing electroencephalogram monitoring of general anaesthesia for building biomarkers of brain ageing: an exploratory study.BJA open · 2023Article
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- Biological age calculators to motivate lifestyle change: Environmental scan of online tools and evaluation of behaviour change techniques.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2023Article
- Artificial intelligence-estimated biological heart age using a 12-lead electrocardiogram predicts mortality and cardiovascular outcomes.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Article
- The Development and Evaluation of "Life Age"-a Primary Prevention and Population-Focused Risk Communication Tool: Feasibility Study With a Single-Arm Repeated Measures Design.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Decline in forced vital capacity in subjects with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease in the SENSCIS trial compared with healthy reference subjects.Respiratory research · 2022Article
- Interventions Using Heart Age for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Communication: Systematic Review of Psychological, Behavioral, and Clinical Effects.JMIR cardio · 2021Review
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- The association between mechanical ventilator compatible bed occupancy and mortality risk in intensive care patients with COVID-19: a national retrospective cohort study.BMC medicine · 2021Observational
- A Biomarker-based Biological Age in UK Biobank: Composition and Prediction of Mortality and Hospital Admissions.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In communicating chronic risks, there is increasing use of a metaphor that can be termed 'effective-age': the age of a 'healthy' person who has the same risk profile as the individual in question. Popular measures include 'real-age', 'heart-age', 'lung-age' and so on.Here we formally define this concept, and illustrate its use in a variety of areas. We explore conditions under which the years lost or gained that are associated with exposure to risk factors depends neither on current chronological age, nor the period over which the risk is defined. These conditions generally hold for all-cause adult mortality, which enables a simple and vivid translation from hazard-ratios to years lost or gained off chronological age. Finally we consider the attractiveness and impact of this concept.Under reasonable assumptions, the risks associated with specific behaviours can be expressed in terms of years gained or lost off your effective age. The idea of effective age appears a useful and attractive metaphor to vividly communicate risks to individuals.
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