{"id":4010,"date":"2016-09-08T14:45:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T18:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.122.34\/en\/?p=4010"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:05:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:05:41","slug":"want-to-know-how-long-youll-live-theres-a-calculator-for-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/want-to-know-how-long-youll-live-theres-a-calculator-for-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to know how long you\u2019ll live? There\u2019s a calculator for that"},"content":{"rendered":"

A creative tool by senior scientist Dr. Doug Manuel and his team helps show why public health research matters.<\/em><\/p>\n

Calculators are great for dividing up restaurant bills, but what about one that estimates how long you\u2019re going to live? Dr. Doug Manuel\u2019s<\/a> research team has created an online calculator called Project Big Life<\/a> that uses exercise, eating and smoking habits to determine a person\u2019s lifespan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find it\u2019s a good way to engage people in research and health policy,\u201d said Dr. Manuel, a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital.<\/p>\n

The calculator was added at the last minute to a 2012 report published by Dr. Manuel\u2019s team that found Ontarians\u2019 unhealthy habits were costing them an estimated seven years of life<\/a>. The goal of the calculator was to show people the impact of this research, and it succeeded beyond the team\u2019s wildest dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing you know we were on the front page of The Globe and Mail<\/em> and our servers crashed,\u201d said Dr. Manuel. The calculator saw even more visits when the team published a follow-up study<\/a> on Canadians\u2019 unhealthy habits this summer. Over 1 million people from 200 countries have used the calculators.<\/p>\n

Dr. Manuel first became interested in public health while working as a family doctor in remote communities. He realized that he needed to address the underlying causes of his patients\u2019 diseases, like access to nutritional food, and being able to walk or bike in their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really felt that I could be working a lot longer as a doctor and everyone would still be a lot sicker,\u201d he said. \u201cI decided that working in public health could bring more meaningful help to more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the calculators can help individuals, Dr. Manuel\u2019s real vision is to provide governments and planners with tools to help them improve community health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t have a lot of information about how public policy decisions affect people\u2019s health. That\u2019s the goal of our research,\u201d said Dr. Manuel, who is also a professor at the University of Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Today, the calculator is used by some doctors and researchers and by the Heart and Stroke Foundation in its Risk Assessment<\/a> tool.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about seeing that impact, so we can discuss how to make those healthy choices easy choices,\u201d said Dr. Manuel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A creative tool by senior scientist Dr. Doug Manuel and his team helps show why public health research matters. Calculators are great for dividing up restaurant bills, but what about one that estimates how long you\u2019re going to live? Dr. Doug Manuel\u2019s research team has created an online calculator called Project Big Life that uses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":4011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}