The WHOOP Healthspan Feature

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Overview

Paper Summary

Conflicts of Interest

Identified Weaknesses

Rating Explanation

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Paper Summary

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WHOOP Healthspan: Your Functional Age, But Take It With a Grain of Salt

This whitepaper describes WHOOP's new Healthspan feature, which calculates "functional age" based on lifestyle data like sleep, activity, and fitness. While it aims to provide actionable health insights grounded in science, the study relies on observational data and makes some assumptions where scientific consensus is lacking. Furthermore, the data comparing WHOOP users to national averages might be biased, as WHOOP users tend to be more health-conscious.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

The authors of the whitepaper are employees of WHOOP, which creates a conflict of interest as they are evaluating the effectiveness of their own product.

Identified Weaknesses

Age-Dependent Hazard Ratios

The study acknowledges that hazard ratios may not be consistent across all ages for certain health behaviors. A given behavior might have a different impact depending on the age of the individual, making a standardized calculation challenging.

Correlation vs. Causation

The study primarily uses observational data, which can establish correlations but not definite causation. While the physiological links between measured behaviors and health are established, the study doesn't definitively prove that following WHOOP's advice directly *causes* health improvement.

Incomplete Healthspan Representation

The study acknowledges that while it tracks key elements of health, it doesn't cover everything. Factors like nutrition, social connection, and mental well-being are not incorporated, meaning it doesn't represent a complete picture of healthspan.

Reliance on Expert Opinion for Some Metrics

While WHOOP aims to be evidence-based, they sometimes rely on expert recommendations when clear scientific guidelines don't exist. This introduces some subjectivity and could affect the accuracy of their 'functional age' calculations for specific metrics.

Unrepresentative Sample (WHOOP Users vs. General Population)

WHOOP members are likely a more health-conscious population than average, making the comparison with national averages less meaningful. This might inflate the perceived benefits of using WHOOP and create a skewed sense of how users compare to the general population.

Rating Explanation

This paper presents an interesting concept and application of existing longevity research. However, reliance on correlation, expert recommendations in lieu of clear guidelines, and potential sample bias limit the strength of the findings. The authors transparently disclose these limitations, hence a rating of 3.

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