研究顯示 母親分娩時的年齡或可決定孩子的壽命大綱

The secret of a long and healthy life could be as simple as your mother's age at the time of your birth.

長壽健康的祕訣可以簡單到只是你母親生你時的年齡。

Babies born to women under 25 are almost twice as likely to live to 100 as those born to older mothers, a study has shown.

一項研究顯示，與高齡女性生的孩子相比，25歲以下女性生的孩子，活到100歲的機率是前者的兩倍。

The finding could have implications for the tens of thousands of British babies born to older mothers each year.

這項研究可能會對英國每年由高齡女性生出的成千上萬的嬰兒產生影響。

The trend for delaying parenthood means that almost half of the 720,000 babies born each year are born to mothers aged 30-plus.

推遲生育的趨勢意味着，在每年出生的72萬名嬰兒中，幾乎有一半的母親都是30歲以上。

Previous work by the University of Chicago husband and wife team Dr Leonid Gavrilov and Dr Natalia Gavrilov had shown that firstborn children live longer than their younger siblings.

芝加哥大學列奧尼德·加夫裏洛夫博士和納塔莉亞·加夫裏洛夫博士夫婦二人之前的研究證實，家中的老大要比其兄弟姐妹長壽。

Now it appears the two are linked, with older children living longer because their mothers are younger when they have them. However, the father's age has little effect on longevity.

現在看起來，兩者是有聯繫的，老大長壽也是因爲他們出生時母親還年輕。不過，父親的年齡對壽命倒是影響不大。

The researchers say more work is needed to pin down why the mother's age is so important. But it could be down to simple biology, with egg quality being best in younger women.

研究人員稱，需要做更多的工作來找出母親的年齡爲何如此重要。不過它也可以歸結爲簡單的生物學：年輕女性的卵子質量最好。

The answer could also lie in younger women being healthier than their older counterparts.

另外，答案也有可能是年輕女性比高齡女性更健康。

Dr Gavrilov said the finding "may have important social implications because many women postpone their childbearing to later ages because of career demands".

加夫裏洛夫博士稱，這一發現“可能具有重要的社會意義，因爲許多女性都因爲工作原因，將她們的生育年齡推遲了幾年”。