VOA慢速英语:Rising Wealth Not Enough to Raise Child Health

A recent study questions whether placing attention on economic growth is the best way to improve child nutrition in low- and middle-income countries.
最近一项研究质疑，把注意力放在经济增长上是否是改善中低收入国家儿童营养的最佳途径。

Subu Subramanian is a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts. He says there is a common belief on the best way to improve child health in developing countries. He puts it this way: "Let's just go after economic growth and then everything else will just follow."
Subu Subramanian是马萨诸塞州哈佛大学公共卫生学院的教授。他说全球对改善发展中国家儿童健康的最佳方法有一个共同的信念。他是这样说的：“经济增长之后，一切都会随之而来。”

But he says that is not always true. Take India for example, a common measure of a country's economic heath is gross domestic product (GDP). India's GDP has been growing by more than five percent a year, that is a higher growth rate than most Western countries.
但他称事实并非总是如此。以印度为例，衡量一个国家经济健康的常用指标是国民生产总值（GDP），印度的国民生产总值每年增长都超过5%，这是一个比大多数西方国家还高的增长率。

Yet more than two-fifths of India's children are underweight. And Subu Subramanian says, the percentage of underweight children has changed little since the the early 1990s. He and other researchers asked a question, "was economic growth failing to reach children in countries other than India?"
然而超过五分之二的印度儿童体重过轻。而Subu Subramanian称，体重过轻儿童的比例自上世纪90年代初起就几乎没有改变。他和其他研究人员提出了一个问题，“除印度之外的其它国家的经济增长是否也未能惠及儿童？”

They looked at health surveys carried out since 1990 in 36 low- and middle-income countries, mostly South of Africa's Sahara Desert. The researchers compared the effect of GDP growth and signs of child malnutrition - like stunted growth and being underweight. But the researchers found only a small relationship or correlation.
他们查看了自1990年以来，在36个低收入和中低收入国家进行的健康调查，这些国家主要位于撒哈拉以南非洲。研究人员比较了GDP增长的影响和儿童营养不良的迹象，像发育不良和体重过轻。但研究人员发现两者之间关联很小。

"practically zero to very, very small," said Subramanian.
Subramanian说，“几乎为零，非常非常小的联系。”
The group reported their findings in the journal Lancet Global Health. Subu Subramanian says money should be spent on clear water and waste-treatment system, childhood immunization campaigns and other programs.
该小组将他们的研究结果发表在《柳叶刀全球健康》杂志上。Subu Subramanian说，应该把资金投入到清洁水和废物处理系统、儿童免疫运动及其它项目。

"Without these directing investments, what we are seeing is [that] economic growth by itself is not making much impact," said Subramanian.
Subramanian说：“如果没有这些直接投资，我们就能看到经济增长自身并未造成很大影响。”

But that is not how Lawrence Haddad sees the issue. He is head of the Institute of Development Studies in Britain. Lawrence Haddad says malnutrition has dropped sharply over the past 20 years in countries like Vietnam, Ghana or Brazil. He says economic growth was responsible for half of those declines.
但Lawrence Haddad并不这么看待问题。他是英国发展研究所所长。Lawrence Haddad称，过去20年越南、加纳和巴西等国家的营养不良率已经大幅下降。他说，经济增长占据了一半功劳。

"The other half is attributable to strategic investments in water, sanitation, health systems, nutrition programs," said Haddad.
Haddad称，“另一半归功于在水、卫生设施、卫生体系和营养计划上的战略投资。”

He says it takes both GDP growth and the right investments to improve child nutrition.
他说，改善儿童营养需要GDP增长和正确投资的共同作用。