又高又瘦的女性更長壽

A woman’s height and weight appear to play a greater part in her chance of enjoying a long life than a man’s, according to a study investigating a person's likelihood of reaching the age of 90.

一項有關人活到90歲概率的調查研究顯示，相較於男性，女性的身高和體重似乎在長壽方面發揮了更大的作用。

Women who are taller than average, standing at 5ft 9 inches or above, were 31 percent more likely to enter their ninth decade compared with those standing at 5ft 3 inches or less, the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health suggested. The same result wasn’t found in men.

一項新的研究顯示，身高高於平均水平（即身高在175釐米以上）的女性活到90歲的概率比身高在160釐米以下的女性高31%。同樣的結果在男性身上沒有發現。研究結果發表在《流行病學和社區衛生》期刊上。

The researchers at Maastricht University wanted to answer why the spike in life expectancies in Western countries has plateaued in recent decades. In the US, that figure currently stands at 78.6. Existing work indicates the obesity epidemic could be one culprit, as well as low levels of exercise.

荷蘭馬斯特裏赫特大學的研究人員想要找出西方國家預期壽命增長近幾十年來進入停滯期的原因。美國當前的人口預期壽命停留在78.6歲。目前的研究顯示，普遍肥胖和缺乏運動可能是其中的兩個原因。

Most past studies into longevity featured only men, or a combination of men and women. This work, therefore, offers a new perspective by looking into how BMI (an individual’s weight divided by height squared) and exercise levels might affect the lifespan of men and women separately. Women tend to live longer than men due to factors including differing lifestyles on average, as well as genetics and hormones, the authors wrote.

過去大多數對壽命的研究主要針對男性，或者將男性和女性兩個羣體一起研究。然而，這項研究通過分析身高體重指數（BMI，體重除以身高的平方）和運動水平分別對男性和女性的壽命產生何種影響，提供了一個新的視角。研究報告稱，由於生活方式的普遍差異、基因及荷爾蒙等原因，女性的壽命往往比男性長。

To investigate, the team used data from the Netherlands Cohort Study, which was started in 1986, and collected information on over 120,000 men and women aged between 55 to 69 years old living in 204 Dutch municipalities.

爲進行調查，研究小組使用了1986年啓動的荷蘭人羣健康研究項目的數據，並收集了居住在204個荷蘭市鎮、年齡在55歲至69歲之間的12萬多名男女的信息。

From this pool, the researchers assessed data from on 3,646 male and 4,161 female respondents born between 1916 and 1917.

研究人員對在1916年至1917年出生的3646名男性受訪者和4161名女性受訪者的數據進行了評估。

At the start of the study, the respondents answered questions about their lives (like how much they smoked, drank alcohol and spent walking per day), and detailed variables such as their weight, height, and their weight when they were 20 years old. Participants were categorized into three groups: those who exercised for less than 30 minutes; between 30 to 60 minutes; and for 1.5 hours or more.

在研究開始時，參與者回答了一些關於生活的問題，比如每天抽幾支煙、喝幾杯酒、走多少路等等，以及體重、身高和20歲時的體重等變量。參與者被分爲三組——每天鍛鍊時間在30分鐘以下的；30-60分鐘的；1.5小時以上的。

In women aged between 68 to 70, their height, current BMI and their weight gain since the age of 20 were associated with reaching the age of 90.

在68歲至70歲的女性中，她們的身高、目前的BMI及20歲以來的體重增加情況都與其能否活到90歲有關。

And while exercising was found to boost the lifespan, working out for one hour a day was best suited to women before the effects plateaued. In men, there was no such cap.

儘管研究人員發現，鍛鍊也能延長壽命，但對女性來說每天鍛鍊1小時最佳，之後的鍛鍊作用就到頂了。對男性來說，不存在這個時間上限。

Men who worked out for more than 90 minutes per day were 39 percent more likely to see their 90th birthday than those who exercised for 30 minutes or less. In women, those who engaged in physical activity for 30 to 60 minutes were a fifth more likely to hit the age of 90, compared with those who engaged in half an hour of physical activity.

較之每天鍛鍊半小時及以下的男性來說，每天鍛鍊超過1.5小時的男性活到90歲的機率要高出39%。而與每天鍛鍊不到半小時的女性相比，每天鍛鍊半小時到1小時的女性更可能活到90歲。

However, in men who had never smoked (10 percent of the cohort) a high BMI appeared to lower the chance of reaching 90 years of age. Study author Lloyd Brandts, of the Maastricht University Department of Epidemiology, told Newsweek: “But the number of never-smoking individuals was too small to conclude anything about this.”

然而，對那些從不吸菸的男性來說（佔10%），BMI指數較高會降低活到90歲的機率。研究報告作者、馬斯特裏赫特大學流行病學系的勞埃德-布蘭茨告訴《新聞週刊》說：“但從不吸菸的人非常少，可能證據也不是很充分。”

“These finding indicate that both body size and physical activity are related to lifespan, but that these associations seem to differ between men and women. We advise the readers to adapt a healthy weight and at least 60 min of physical activity a day,” he said.

他說：“這些研究顯示，身高和體重以及體力活動和壽命有關。但這些聯繫在男性和女性身上有不同的表現。我們建議讀者保持健康的體重，每天最少鍛鍊1小時。”