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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 20, 2026

Dynamic Digital Biomarkers of Motor and Cognitive Function in Parkinson's Disease

Dynamic Digital Biomarkers of Motor and Cognitive Function in Parkinson's Disease

Published on: July 24, 2019

Predicting mortality from human faces.

Dominika Dykiert¹, Timothy C Bates, Alan J Gow

¹Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. i.deary@ed.ac.uk

Psychosomatic Medicine

|July 4, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Facial age in photographs predicts mortality risk in older adults. Apparent facial age is a significant predictor of longevity, even beyond objective health and cognitive assessments.

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Area of Science:

Gerontology
Biogerontology
Facial Aging Research

Background:

Facial appearance may reflect underlying health and biological aging processes.
Previous research has explored links between facial features and health outcomes, but predictive value for mortality requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if mortality risk in older adults can be predicted from facial photographs.
To assess the extent to which various facial ratings predict mortality over a 7-year follow-up period.

Main Methods:

Facial photographs of 292 individuals from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (aged ~83) were rated for apparent age, health, attractiveness, symmetry, intelligence, and well-being.
Cox proportional hazards regression analyzed associations between these ratings and mortality during follow-up.

Main Results:

Apparent facial age, adjusted for sex and chronological age, significantly predicted mortality (HR=1.36).
This predictive value remained significant even after controlling for objective health, cognitive ability, and other facial ratings.
Rated health predicted mortality initially but lost significance when adjusted for rated age or objective health/cognition.

Conclusions:

Apparent facial age derived from photographs is a significant predictor of mortality risk in older adults.
Facial age provides predictive information about mortality beyond objective health status and cognitive ability.