WASHINGTON — Many people know they should work out more for a healthier, longer life. Now, doctors are turning to exercise equipment to predict just how long that life will be.
In a discovery made by cardiologists at Johns Hopkins University, doctors say they can predict with better accuracy how long patients will live based on gender, age and how well they fare on a treadmill.
Doctors say it comes down to how your body responds to increasing speed and incline on a treadmill.
“We usually base predictions of survival on the absence or presence of the disease state,” says ABC News’ Senior Medical Contributor Dr. Jennifer Ashton.
But this test, she says, is unique because it allows doctors to compare men or women of the same age. And the findings are easier to translate to the patient.
“What’s new here is, there’s a fancy equation for doctors to compare the survival of a 50-year-old woman and another 50-year-old woman,” Ashton says.
She says that is relevant because doctors can hopefully use it to motivate behavioral change.
The study is based on 58,000 stress tests looking primarily at patients’ heart rate and metabolism.
