Using BetterAge

Click on each tab to read its answer.

This page includes information about the BetterAge assessment and guidance.

What can I expect while taking the assessment?

The assessment has been user-tested to ensure ease of use and understanding of questions.

The first 12 questions in particular have been based off of the Adult Well-Being Assessment (AWA), developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as part of their 100 Million Healthier Lives (100MLives) initiative. It includes questions about physical, mental, financial, social, and emotional health, and is designed to identify areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. These are to be answered on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is always indicates a more negative response and 10 always indicates a more positive response.

To learn more about the AWA and the 100MLives initiative, take a look at their Health and Well-Being Measurement Approach and Assessment Guide.

You will also be asked additional questions to assess your life situations, needs, and desires. For instance, basic demographic questions will be asked, as well as questions related to social determinants of health, health limitations, and if you’re a caregiver.

What if I don't understand a question?

The assessment aims to measure how you’re doing at your current moment in time - regardless of your life situation 2 weeks ago and how you expect your life to change in the future.

Please do your best to answer each question based on your own assessment of your current life situation. There are no right or wrong answers.

If there is a language barrier, you believe that there is an issue with the question, or you are still uncomfortable with answering the question, please talk to your organization’s staff for assistance or contact us.

What am I supposed to do with the guidance?

Thank you for completing our assessment! It is our hope that Your Personal Well-Being Report and the accompanying guidance will be helpful to you. The report aims to be an all-in-one guide for you to understand your current health status and learn about what you can do to improve your status.

Ideally, you would use the report and our guidance to set and reach goals to improve your health and well-being. If you need support with setting and reaching goals, or would simply like to talk to someone about your report, we urge you to utilize our print future to allow you to print or save the pages as a pdf. Then, you can share your reports with others such as your loved ones, organization staff, and your healthcare provider, who will then be better equipped to help you improve your health and well-being.

See the images below for what our print function looks like on computers versus phones. Ask organization staff for assistance with printing, if necessary.

Computer View:

Phone View:

Are the recommendations trustworthy?

Our content has been vetted by experts in the field of aging and include evidence-based reasons and methods for addressing each health and well-being topic. We sincerely hope that the guidance will help you to improve your overall health and well-being.

Information and resources on health and well-being are constantly being researched and renewed. BetterAge is committed to ensuring that our guidance is up-to-date and always improving.

If you find any mistakes or would like to provide feedback on any part of our service, we would appreciate it if you could contact us to let us know.

Thank you for helping us to improve our service for people like you.

What happens when my session expires?

Sessions expire after 40 minutes of inactivity on the site. To prevent you from losing access to your results and guidance, we urge you to make an account and save your sessions. If you need assistance with creating an account, reach out to your organization staff for in-person assistance or contact us.

If your session data has been lost due to extended inactivity and you had not created an account, contact us to get an account and re-access your session data.

Unfortunately, there is no way to access your past sessions without having an account with us, meaning that you will need to share your email address.

Can I share the service with my loved ones or for my friends to use if they aren’t participants in the same organization as me?

We are glad that you would like to share BetterAge with others. Unfortunately, in order to ensure accuracy and quality of data, we are only currently only seeking responses from individuals affiliated with each organization that we partner with. However, we plan on expanding our reach to more individuals in the future.

If you have any recommendations for organizations that we should collaborate and partner with, please contact us.

How can I file a complaint or report mistakes in the guidance?

Your time is valuable, and we greatly appreciate you using BetterAge to enhance your own health and well-being and that of others in your community and across the nation.

We are sorry to hear that there was a mistake or something offensive in our service, and would be grateful if you could contact us to let us know.

Thank you for helping us to improve our service for people like you.

I still need technology assistance. What should I do?

BetterAge strives to make the service as easy to use as possible for everyone. We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues, and are thankful that you have come to our Help Center for support. If you cannot find a solution within these FAQs, please reach out to your organization’s staff for assistance or contact us.

I am taking the assessment, but don’t see the option to continue or cannot click on the “Next” button. What should I do?

The “Next” button will appear and become clickable when all questions on the page have been answered. If it is not available to you, please double check that every question has been answered. You may need to scroll further down the page to see it, depending on the size of the screen on your device.

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