Budget - 2. Helpful example #1: Family history of heart attack
[DISCLAIMER: This example and the included documents are provided for education and information purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical care. It does not replace advice from your healthcare professional. Readers should be aware that the content of their health questionnaire information may change over time as well as their risk. All users should seek advice from a qualified healthcare professional for a diagnosis and answers to their medical questions.]
Completing the risk assessment document
For our first example, we will draw from the Family Health History exercise. We’ll use a fictional audience member name Frank.
Family health history - example of heart attack in the father.
Frank is a 60 year old male of caucasian ethnicity.
In this example, Frank’s father had a heart attack at age 59, and received a stent as a result. He was known to have high blood pressure since his early 40s.
The presence of this heart attack indicates Frank is has an elevated probability of suffering from heart disease.
A heart attack (as well as cardiovascular disease more broadly) is therefore a longevity risk that must be managed.
Step 1: List the longevity risk
Frank lists this information in the first column (see example image).
Now we must consider the potential consequence from this risk.
While Frank’s father was rushed to the ER 20 minutes down the road and received a stent to open the blockage - we could consider him very fortunate.
In fact, the life-saving procedure he underwent was in itself a form of risk management - we have emergency room doctors on call to handle such scenarios.
Step 2: List the consequence
For Frank, the potential consequence of a heart attack is very much life & death. We want to avoid this if at all possible!
Tip: Where in doubt, you should list a reasonable ‘worst case’ scenario for the consequence to properly represent the longevity risk.
Step 3: Choose a consequence category
In risk management, consequences have categories. In longevity risk management, these categories are:
Minor (no real risk to healthspan or lifespan)
Moderate (possible impacts to healthspan)
Major (healthspan impacts, possibly lifespan impacts)
Severe (lifespan impacts)
For Frank, with the family history of heart attack at a relatively young age, the consequence category could arguably be either Major or Severe. Heart attacks can be life ending. If not life-ending, they have the potential to cause permanent damage.
Step 4: Choose a likelihood category
Based on his family risk and his lifestyle choices to date, Frank’s results from the Siteman web tool suggest he is at ‘very much above average risk’.
Frank also had concerning results from the Siteman Your Disease Risk tool.
He is overweight, has a low activity level and a poor diet.
These results, combined with the the family health history information make it clear that he is at high risk.
This suggests that the likelihood category for Frank is arguably Very Likely to Likely.
Tip: when choosing the likelihood there is no ‘right’ answer, and you need to make the best choice you can when completing your document.
Ultimately, conversations with your chosen healthcare professional will help confirm your choices (at this stage, you’re preparing for those discussions)
Step 5: Determine the longevity risk rating
The next step involves matching the likelihood and consequence categories in the longevity risk rating table.
This is a simple matching of the row & column to get the risk rating.
In general, you can see that the table follows the logic of ‘lower likelihood’ paired with ‘minor consequence’ equals ‘low risk’.
Conversely, ‘high likelihood’ paired with ‘major’ or ‘severe’ consequences equals ‘very high’ risk.
For Frank’s situation, ‘Very Likely’ likelihood is paired with ‘Severe’ consequence.
This is because he saw poor results from the Siteman web tool and he has presence of the disease in his family (high likelihood) and because the potential consequence (heart attack) could end his life.
The result for Frank is a ‘very high’ longevity risk.
Naturally, this starts the discussion of ‘What should Frank do about this risk to his longevity?’
The next step is to have a conversation with his doctor. He should also become proactive with lifestyle changes to lower his risk and longevity technologies to monitor his cardiovacular health (for example - ordering specific blood tests).
