16 August 2017

Biomarkers of ageing: Use of internet ‘measurement of biological age’ website services

New project

In the past decade, an increasing variety of organisations have been established whose only objective is the provision of biological, personalised age measurement. Indeed, any cursory browse on the internet for ‘age’ would reveal that there are currently available a variety of tests to ascertain individuals’ ‘personalised age’, from simple questionnaires to those using bio-molecular techniques such as telomere length measuring.

This is an explorative study of the use of such online ‘personalised age’ measurement tools. The researchers aim at investigating the views of users of such services on the social and ethical impacts of personalised age measurement. The investigation conducted uses a mix of focus group interviews with users and non-users of such personalised age measurement tools and a digital mapping of Danes’ usage of internet measurements of biological age. The questions explored are; who uses these services, why do they use them and what the ethical implications of such use are.

The research project “Biomarkers of ageing: Use of internet ‘measurement of biological age’ website services” started August 1, 2017 and is led by Dr. Tiago Moreira from Durham University, Postdoc at CoRe Aske Juul Lassen and Research Assistant at CoRe Asger Aarup Hansen.