经济学人下载:长命百岁,美国胖子！

Health and longevity健康与寿命

Long live the fat American长命百岁 美国胖子！

Obesity may threaten life expectancy. Or maybe not
肥胖症不知是否会威胁人们的预期寿命

Jun 30th 2011 | NEW YORK | from the print edition

AMERICA’S obesity epidemic is so called for a reason. Roughly one in three adults is obese. In 2008 close to 25m Americans were diabetic, according to a study published on June 25th. Nevertheless, Americans are living longer than ever. In 2007 the average life expectancy at birth was 78 years. This follows decades of progress. The question is whether obesity might change that.

在美国，说肥胖症流行有理有据：大约每三个成年人中就有一个是胖子。6月25日出版的一项研究结果表明，2008年，美国有近2500万糖尿病患者。然而，美国人正生活在史上最长寿的时期。2007年，初生婴儿平均预期寿命为78岁，这种进步已经持续数十年。如今的问题是肥胖症也许会改变这种进步的趋势。

National progress in life expectancy masks wide local disparities, according to a study published on June 15th and written by researchers at the University of Washington and Imperial College London. Men in Holmes County, Mississippi, for example, have a life expectancy of 65.9 years, the same as men in Pakistan and 15.2 years behind men in Fairfax, Virginia. Gaps between America’s counties have widened since the early 1980s. Most alarming, 702 counties, or 30% of those studied, saw a statistically significant decline in life expectancy for women from 2000 to 2007; 251 counties saw a statistically significant decline for men.

一项由华盛顿大学和伦敦皇家学院的研究人员共同执笔，并于6月15日出版的一项研究结果显示，预期寿命所取得的全国性进步掩盖了广泛的地方性差异。例如，密西西比州Holmes县男性预期寿命为65.9岁，与巴基斯坦男性相同，但要比佛吉尼亚州Fairfax 县男性少15.2岁。美国各县之间的差距从1980年代早期开始扩大。最令人担忧的是，有702个县（占研究总数的30%）的女性预期寿命在2000年至2007年间出现了大幅下降，有251个县的男性预期寿命出现大幅下降。