How Vivera computes the Vitality Quotient (VQ) — your health condensed to one transparent, peer-reviewed number.
VQ (Vitality Quotient) is a composite health score expressed on the IQ scale: mean 100, standard deviation 15, range 55–145. This makes it intuitive — 100 means you are average for your age group, 115 means one standard deviation above average.
Unlike proprietary black-box scores from WHOOP or Oura, VQ's formula is fully published here and every weight is derived from peer-reviewed scientific literature, not internal opinion.
vq_raw is a 0–100 weighted average of available component scores. cohort_mean and cohort_sd are population reference values for your age bracket, seeded from NHANES and AHA research data and updated as the Vivera cohort grows.
Each domain is converted to a 0–100 factor, then combined with a weighted average. Missing domains redistribute their weight proportionally — you get a valid VQ from a single lab upload.
| Component | Weight | Factor formula | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bio Age delta | 25% | clamp(50 + (chronoAge − bioAge) × 3, 0, 100) | [1] Levine 2018 |
| Aging Velocity | 15% | clamp((2 − velocity) × 50, 0, 100) | [4] Belsky 2022 |
| Activity (VO₂max) | 22% | score_engine component score | [2] Kaminsky 2022 |
| Sleep quality | 20% | score_engine component score | [3] AHA LE8 2022 |
| Biomarker panel | 13% | score_engine component score | [1] NHANES III |
| Nutrition | 5% | score_engine component score | [3] AHA LE8 diet |
Biological age is computed using the Levine PhenoAge algorithm [1], derived from NHANES III mortality data. It requires up to 9 blood biomarkers: Albumin, Creatinine, Glucose, C-Reactive Protein, Lymphocyte %, Mean Cell Volume, Red Cell Distribution Width, Alkaline Phosphatase, and White Blood Cell Count.
Missing biomarkers are imputed with population medians (confidence penalized proportionally). A minimum of 3 matched biomarkers is required to compute bio age. Glucose and CRP are log-transformed per the original paper (Table S3).
Raw scores are normalized against age-bracket reference distributions (10 brackets: 18-24 through 65+), seeded from NHANES III and AHA LE8 published population health score distributions. As the Vivera user base grows, these references are updated with real cohort data.
The IQ analogy is intentional: just as IQ means nothing without population context (a 7-year-old scoring 130 is exceptional; a 35-year-old is evaluated against 35-year-olds), VQ 112 means “top 23% for your age group” — not just “your score is 112”.