The death test: Your life expectancy days are numbered

The death test: Your life expectancy days are numbered

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): "How long will my money last?" is a question
that worries a lot of retirees and soon-to-be retirees. The
answer hinges on a number of issues, including how much annual
income you will need, what inflation does in the future and, most
importantly, how long you will live. Although most people have no
idea of how long they will live, finding out their life
expectancy is one way to fill in this blank in their retirement
plans. But how is life expectancy calculated and should you put
much reliance on it when planning for the future?

The most important thing to remember about life expectancy is
that it doesn't lock in at birth. As you get older, the age to
which you're expected to live gets higher (wow, sounds
refreshing) because the people in your age group who have died
are no longer counted in the equation (referring to statistical
probability theory). For example, the life expectancy at birth
for males born in 1930 was 59. Those who lived to age 30 then had
a life expectancy of 67. At 65, those remaining can anticipate
living not two but 12 more years to age 77. And once they reach
70, their life expectancy increases to 79.

If you are a 100 years old, you have a good chance of living
forever. Why?

Because very few people die after age 100. Recently, The
Guinness Book of Records looked for the oldest woman after Eva
Morris died six days before her 115th birthday on Nov. 2, 2000.
If you still think that it makes sense, here is another fact: The
most dangerous place for humans is the bed - because most people
die in bed. Don't sweat, this is only a statistics joke. Don't
take it seriously, even though Eva died in her bed, too.

IDB Summary Demographic Data for Indonesia
(www.census.gov/ftp/pub/ipc/www/idbsum.html) predicted that life
expectancy at birth in the year 2000 is 68 years. More developed
regions of the world generally have higher life expectancies than
less developed regions. The regional variation is quite dramatic.
However, some countries like Saudi Arabia have a very high GNP
per capita but don't have high life expectancies (67.8 years).
Conversely, there are countries like China (71.4 years) and Cuba
(76.2 years) that have a low GNP per capita but that have
reasonably high life expectancies.

Okay, I think enough of the theories and facts. So, have you
ever wondered how long you will live? Let's play a fun test. You
will never find a convenient expiration day on your birth
certificate. Get the exact day of your death by taking the
pseudoscientific death test at TheSpark.com (which also offers
some other interesting tests including those on love, sex and
pregnancy). There is a list of probabilities of what you will
most likely die from on "that date".

The site claimed that more than 6.6 million people have
undertaken the test, and some interesting statistics have been
gathered, including the following: 54 percent of test takers were
female (women are more curious than men), the average life
expectancy is 67 years (slightly under the average Indonesian
life expectancy this year), 9 percent have hairy nipples (I still
don't understand the significance), about 100,915 people claimed
to have leprosy (do they know the meaning of the word?).

You simply answer a series of biologically, nutritionally, and
recreationally oriented questions ranging from the serious "How
often do you lift weights?" to the silly "Do you regularly light
firecrackers in your mouth and then spit them out at the last
second?". This short self-scoring life expectancy test provides
feedback on how lifestyle choices such as exercise and smoking
influence health. Responses to each question determine whether
years are to be added or subtracted. If you're not happy with the
results, don't lie and give a compromised answer.

By the way, if you are not satisfied with the result, there
are other sites that are willing to calculate your life
expectancy. Perhaps you will get a better score. Try at
www.msnbc.com/modules/quizzes/lifex.asp;
http://www.hksrch.com.hk/life_old.html;
www.beeson.org/Livingto100/quiz.htm.

Compare the different scores, and then calculate the average
score.

People are living longer and longer. It is often thought that
an increase in life expectancy signifies an improvement in the
health of a population. Studies have shown that this is not
necessarily true, as longer life expectancy could be achieved by
prolonging the lives of those with serious illnesses. Quality of
life, rather than length, has become an important concern.

Keep in mind that life expectancy figures are conservative.
Individuals who don't smoke, maintain a healthy weight and keep
their blood pressure and cholesterol under control with diet and
exercise could live ten to 15 years longer than current
statistical tables show. If longevity runs in your family, your
odds are even better. Therefore, unless you have life-threatening
health problems, it's a good idea for you and your spouse to plan
on living into your 90s.