NOVOS offers the ENABL Age biological age clock free of charge to the general public, as part of its commitment as a Public Benefit Corporation and making longevity accessible and achievable for all.
ENABL Age is a second generation, survey-based biological age clock that provides greater accuracy than first generation biological age clocks. The clock, created by researchers at the University of Washington, and overseen by Professor Su-In Lee, and in collaboration with Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, was trained using both blood test results and survey questions. After being trained, a special version of the algorithm is capable of producing accurate biological age outputs based on simple questionnaire responses about your lifestyle and health behaviors.
When comparing ENABL Age to a blood-based epigenetic biological age test, ENABL Age offers a more accessible assessment. ENABL Age captures unique aging mechanisms not represented by other clocks like the Horvath, GrimAge, and DNAmPhenoAge clocks, making it a powerful tool for gaining insights into your overall health and aging process based on lifestyle and health-related factors.
It’s worth noting that as accurate as ENABL Age is, it is not as accurate as the NOVOS Age blood-based test, which leverages the third generation DunedinPACE clock.
Curious to learn more about the free ENABL Age clock? Keep reading!
What Are Biological Age Clocks?
For more than a decade and in an effort to better understand and measure the aging process, scientists have been developing various biological age clocks. These clocks aim to provide a more accurate representation of an individual’s health and aging status than chronological age alone. One of the latest advancements in this field is the ExplaiNAble BioLogical Age (ENABL Age), a novel framework that combines machine learning models with explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods to estimate biological age with individualized explanations.
Understanding Biological Age
Biological age is a measure of how well or poorly your body is functioning relative to your actual chronological age. It reflects your general health status and can provide insights into your risk of age-related diseases and disorders. First generation biological age clocks use chronological age as a surrogate, predicting it with aging biomarkers. However, these first generation clocks often lack precision in capturing the complex nature of biological aging, leading to weak associations with mortality risk. As a result, researchers progressed to second and third generation tests, focused on quality of life, morbidity, and mortality risk.
The ENABL Age Approach
The ENABL Age framework represents a significant leap forward in biological age estimation. It employs complex machine learning models to predict age-related outcomes, such as all-cause or cause-specific mortality, leveraging enormous medical datasets like the UK Biobank (more than 500,000 people aged 40 to 70) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, more than 47,000 people aged 18 to over 80). These predictions are then rescaled to estimate biological age. The framework provides two versions of ENABL Age: ENABL Age-L, based on blood tests, and ENABL Age-Q, based on questionnaire characteristics, making it accessible to a broad audience.
Advantages of ENABL Age
One of the key advantages of ENABL Age is its interpretability. The framework uses XAI methods to decompose individual ENABL Ages into contributing risk factors, providing individualized explanations for each person’s biological age. This interpretability is crucial for understanding complex aging mechanisms on a personal level and for guiding clinical decision-making.
Comparing ENABL Age to the Horvath Blood-based Biological Age Test
ENABL Age can be considered to be more accurate than the first-generation Horvath clock. The study suggests that ENABL Age, a second-generation biological age measure, exhibits stronger genomic overlaps with other second-generation biological age measures, indicating that it captures aging mechanisms more accurately than first-generation clocks like the Horvath clock. Additionally, first-generation clocks, including the Horvath clock, generally show weak associations with mortality risk, whereas biological age as estimated by ENABL Age demonstrates a stronger correlation with mortality, making it a more accurate predictor of disease and mortality risk.
Interpreting Your ENABL Age
Understanding your ENABL Age can provide valuable insights into your health and aging process. If your ENABL Age is lower than your chronological age, it indicates a healthier state. Conversely, a higher ENABL Age suggests an increased risk of age-related diseases and a need for lifestyle adjustments, such as those provided for free to the general public in the NOVOS Life app, or other interventions.
Conclusion
The ENABL Age framework offers a significant advancement in biological age estimation, providing a more accurate and interpretable measure of aging. By combining machine learning models with XAI methods, ENABL Age allows individuals and medical professionals to gain a deeper understanding of the aging process and make informed decisions for promoting healthy aging. ENABL Age has the potential to become a simple, convenient, yet valuable tool in clinical settings and for personal health management.
Want to give ENABL Age a try? Download the NOVOS Life app (Download iOS | Download Android) and complete the survey at sign up!
