In just 10 minutes… App allows people to measure general health

C-Score is a health app that provides the public with a simple way of measuring their general health via their smartphones in 10 minutes.

Developed by Chelsea Football Club start up Chelsea Digital Ventures and digital healthcare experts HUMA, the app evaluates seven lifestyle factors, which have all been validated as key predictors of disease and mortality. These are:

Self-rated health: The app asks you how you feel about your overall health, since people know their bodies best.

Resting heart rate: The app measures people’s heart rate simply by placing their finger over the smartphone’s camera.

Sleep: The app contains a questionnaire that captures how many hours people have slept on average over the last week and the quality of that sleep.

Smoking: The amount of tobacco cigarettes people smoked during an average week.

Alcohol consumption: The type(s) and volume of alcohol people drink during an average week.

Waist to height ratio: People smartphone’s camera is used to determine their waist circumference (you may need an extra pair of hands to help you).

Reaction time: A simple test where people lift their finger once a shape changes color.

Meanwhile and once users have completed each domain, which should take no more than 10 minutes, they are provided with a points-based measure, or ‘C-Score’ (a number between 0-100) which will reflect their general health. For example, the higher your C-Score score, the better your general health is.

As such, users will be able to see how their health compares to the people in the UK Biobank, and what percentage of people gave similar or different answers to them or had data in the same or different range as them.

The score is compared against 500,000 people in the UK Biobank, a national health database made up of individuals aged between 40-69 years whose health data was collected between 2006-2010 and who are still sharing their data so their health can be tracked.

Users will be able to see how their health compares to the people in the UK Biobank, and what percentage of people in the UK Biobank gave similar or different answers to them or had data in the same or different range as them.