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The Vitality Compass by Blue Zones - A Longevity Calculator

About.com Rating 4.5

By Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com

Updated: June 23, 2008

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

The Bottom Line
I had a friend take this test, and of the various longevity calculators out there, The Vitality Compass on the BlueZones.com website was by far his favorite. The test took just 4 minutes and the design to the site was fun and fresh. Overall, my test user's life expectancy was 96.2 (compared to 84 on other longevity calculators.
Pros
  • Fun interface that shows the impact of each response.
  • Gives healthy life expectancy as well as life expectancy.
  • Based on research with the world's longest lived peoples.
Cons
  • The "program" section isn't active yet.
  • Must give e-mail address to use the longevity calculator.
  • Less for healthy people to do.
Description
  • A 4 minutes longevity calculator that uses data gathered from the world's longest lived peoples.
  • The interface is fresh, new and fun to use. See the impact of each question on a simple visual chart.
  • Don't expect too much (yet) in tips and advice. It seems that part of the website is incomplete.
Guide Review - The Vitality Compass by Blue Zones - A Longevity Calculator
The Blue Zones website has a longevity calculator called "The Vitality Compass." Using data from the world's longest lived people, this simple life expectancy test will calculate your potential life expectancy as well as how many years you can expect to live healthy.

My friend who tested longevity calculators got a life expectancy of 96.2 from the Vitality Compass with a healthy life expectancy of 88.3 (compare this to the Live to 100 Longevity Calculator where he got a life expectancy of only 84). By far, this was his favorite longevity calculator: quick, easy and gave good news.

I would love to give this site 5 stars, but the follow-up program (which will cost $9.99 for 6 weeks) is simply not active yet. It is a little confusing to users because it feels like there should be more to see after taking the longevity test, but more cannot be found.

Another drawback was that the Vitality Compass could only find 2 more years of life for my friend -- there just wasn't that much suggested for him to work on. He seemed pleased with this and used it to tell me to stop bothering him about exercising more.

If you don't mind giving your e-mail to BlueZones.com, I recommend trying this longevity test. It is quick, different and really fun to use.

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