A standard health screening in Singapore typically evaluates blood panels against reference ranges to detect active diseases and isolated medical abnormalities. However, complex laboratory reports often leave individuals unsure of how to optimize their preventive care effectively. Biological age assessments, such as the recently launched AgeQ™ algorithm developed by precision health company Lucence, improve standard health screenings by synthesising routine blood test biomarkers into a single actionable metric. Rather than replacing an executive health screening, this assessment acts as an added analytical layer evaluating overall biological ageing across five key areas: nutritional balance, energy, stress resilience, hydration, and cellular renewal.
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Exclusive Questions & Answers On AgeQ™ Biological Age Assessment With Dr Tan Min-Han
Lucence Founder CEO & Medical Director Dr Tan Min-Han shares exclusive insights in a Q&A on how biological age metrics transform static laboratory values into practical preventive strategies.
Standard screenings look for existing diseases, whereas AgeQ measures biological age. How can we use our AgeQ score to guide our future preventive screening routine?
First, we need to understand the significance of biological age. It’s beyond looking at your age in years lived, and provides a view of how your body is ageing based on a set of routine blood biomarkers.
The difference between AgeQTM and standard screenings is that the test looks at routine blood results collectively and produces a single score that reflects biological age.
We examine five areas associated with healthy ageing: Nutritional Balance, Energy & Vitality, Stress Resilience, Hydration & Recovery, and Repair & Renewal.
For instance, if you’re 55 this year in chronological age, and your AgeQTM score is 57, your biological age is accelerated. Someone else of the same age and gender as you may have a vastly different AgeQTM score.
So, AgeQTM’s score is less of a diagnosis and more an early indicator on where to look next. If your score comes back higher than your actual age, it might be a good reason to bring forward a glucose or cholesterol check or to raise it with your doctor sooner.
We built AgeQTM using the same blood draw people already do at a routine health screening, so this isn’t extra effort for anyone. It’s about getting more out of information you already have and looking at these biomarkers together rather than only in isolation.
AgeQ™ uses SLAS data from Singaporeans. What unique insights about Asian biological ageing does it capture that generic Western algorithms miss?
A lot of the biological age tools out there were built using data from America or the UK, and just applied to Asians afterwards. We built AgeQTM the other way round. It started with the Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study, which followed more than 5,400 older Singaporeans for over ten years.
And this really reflects the strength of Singapore’s research and innovation ecosystem, bringing together NUS’ expertise in clinical, population health and academic research, NUS Enterprise which enabled the commercialisation and licensing of the intellectual property, A*STAR’s R&D, translation and commercialisation capabilities, and Lucence’s capabilities in precision health development and industry implementation.
So the foundation is ageing data from an Asian population, observed directly here in Singapore. This is important because much of the existing biological age research has historically been based on Western populations. Having longitudinal data from Singapore gives us insights grounded in our own population. In the Singapore data, smokers had a biological age about 3.6 years older than non-smokers, and individuals who were obese had a biological age about 4.2 years older than those with a normal BMI.
What we did next was to validate the model using large international cohorts in the US and UK, bringing the total validation population to more than 300,000 people. This gives AgeQ™ an Asian foundation together with international validation.
How early can AgeQ detect subtle biological changes before symptoms appear, and what lifestyle interventions best help lower a high biological age?
AgeQ™ is not designed to detect disease or diagnose a condition before symptoms appear. Rather, it provides a snapshot of biological age based on blood biomarkers associated with healthy ageing.
What is interesting from the research is that biological age provided additional information about long-term health risk beyond chronological age alone, including among individuals whose individual blood test results were within normal ranges. The biological age measure identified who had higher long-term health risks 63% of the time, compared with 60% using chronological age alone.
While modest, the improvement suggests that biological age can add meaningful insight to assessments based on chronological age alone, including among individuals whose test results were within normal ranges.
As for what helps bring the number down, nothing on the list should surprise anyone. Smoking and carrying excess weight had the biggest impact on ageing faster. People who exercised regularly were a little over a year younger biologically than those who barely moved, and people who ate more plant-based foods were roughly a year younger too in biological age.
None of that is new advice. What’s different with AgeQTM is that it’s personal and specific. The report helps individuals see their biological age alongside insights across five areas associated with healthy ageing, with practical recommendations to support healthier habits.
As Singapore shifts toward preventive care via Healthier SG, do you see tools like AgeQ staying in executive screening, or eventually entering routine GP visits?
Healthier SG is about shifting the mindset in Singapore, from only seeing a doctor when something’s wrong, to taking on a proactive approach to your health by having an ongoing relationship with a GP who helps you stay well.
To me, that’s definitely a step in the right direction. Since I set up Lucence in 2016, I’ve always believed that earlier detection can save lives. In the long-term, I hope to see AgeQTM play a broader role and used widely as an add-on to the health screening people are already doing every year.
Its value isn’t in being a new device or a new format of screening. It’s in the personalised, practical insight it gives someone about their own health, a clear read on how they’re ageing and the areas they can focus on to support healthier ageing.
Traditional lab reports can be hard for patients to interpret. How does seeing a simple “Biological Age” score help motivate people to take early action on their health?
As a cancer doctor, I spent years discussing test results with patients, and a page full of numbers and reference ranges can be difficult for anyone to interpret, even when that information matters. Chronological age is something everyone already understands. If I tell you your body is reading as 59 when you’re actually 55, that immediately gives you a simple reference point for thinking about how you are ageing.
What matters is also what comes after that number. AgeQ™ is not intended to diagnose disease. It is a starting point for engaging with your health. Pair that with practical insights into areas you can work on, and the information becomes easier to understand and act on.
That’s really the whole point, not just telling people how they’re ageing, but helping them understand what they can do today to support healthier years ahead.
Additional Resources
Health Screening Centres You Can Consider
If you are looking for a health screening centre in Singapore, you can consider the following:
Wellness & Gynaecology Centre by Dr Julinda Lee
National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
National Cancer Centre Singapore
[SG] Featured Doctor- Dr Juanda Leo Hartono
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