Which Health Quiz is Right for You?

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	Which Health Quiz is Right for You?

Rebecca Ruiz

3-27-2009 12:03 PM

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Rebecca Ruiz says:

Tara Parker Pope follows up on a NYT story this week which exposed the business model of Real Age, a popular online health quiz. What most people didn't know was that their answers were being sent to drug marketers. She makes the very good -- and obvious point -- that if you take a health quiz online, it should be one backed by scientific validity. Do you take health quizzes and do you find them useful?

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/6b32d6cc-4791-42e5-8e28-e7d347402630/2658C569-5C65-4383-8E37-13C708E67FC5/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/" href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/" style="font-size: 11px;">well.blogs.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/">More than 27 million people reportedly have taken the RealAge health quiz, which asks questions about lifestyle and family history to determine how young or old your habits make you. But <A href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/technology/internet/26privacy.html?em">a recent story in The New York Times notes that RealAge</A> often provides the data collected from its members to drug marketers, who then target quiz takers with health information.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/">My problem with the RealAge quiz is its lack of scientific validity. The notion that health behaviors can translate into a meaningful “biological age” is just marketing hype, not real science.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/"><A href="http://www.yourdiseaserisk.siteman.wustl.edu/">A better health quiz is Your Disease Risk</A>, a useful set of questions to help you determine your risk for diabetes, several cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis and stroke.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/">The data contained in the quiz are based on numerous epidemiological and other studies that have tracked associations between habits and lifestyle and certain diseases. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-better-health-quiz/">Unlike the RealAge quiz, Your Disease Risk doesn’t assign you a made-up age to assess your health.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/2658C569-5C65-4383-8E37-13C708E67FC5/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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