作者:高原 来源:新华社 2011-8-3 9:18:55
一项最新公布的研究报告称,肥胖已经成为阻碍美国人平均寿命延长的主要障碍,这项研究报告刊登在英国7月刊《社会科学与医学》(Social Science & Medicine)杂志上。
这项由美国南加州大学、哈佛大学公共卫生学院及美国智库兰德公司的研究人员共同完成的报告显示,40年前,美国人的平均寿命要比欧洲人长,但之后美国人平均寿命增长的速度明显落后于欧洲人,现在美国人的平均寿命已经比欧洲人短一年半。
报告分析说,上世纪前半叶,美国和欧洲人的平均寿命延长,主要得益于儿童死亡率大幅降低。之后,老人越来越长寿成为推动平均寿命延长的主要动力。
与欧洲人相比,美国患肥胖症以及与肥胖症有关的疾病(如高血压和糖尿病等)的患者较多。这些疾病不仅严重威胁患者的生命,而且拖累了美国人的平均寿命增长速度。
报告指出,要想长寿,人们应该经常锻炼身体,并改变不健康的生活方式。
美国疾病控制和预防中心的数据显示,美国人平均寿命在2009年达到78.2岁,其中男性75.7岁,女性80.6岁。另有数据显示,美国三分之一的青少年患肥胖症或体重超标。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
Differences in health between Americans and Western Europeans
Pierre-Carl Michauda, Dana Goldmanb, Darius Lakdawallab, Adam Gaileyc and Yuhui Zhengd
In 1975, 50 year-old Americans could expect to live slightly longer than most of their Western European counterparts. By 2005, American life expectancy had fallen behind that of most Western European countries. We find that this growing longevity gap is primarily due to real declines in the health of near-elderly Americans, relative to their Western European peers. We use a microsimulation approach to project what US longevity would look like, if US health trends approximated those in Western Europe. The model implies that differences in health can explain most of the growing gap in remaining life expectancy. In addition, we quantify the public finance consequences of this deterioration in health. The model predicts that gradually moving American cohorts to the health status enjoyed by Western Europeans could save up to $1.1 trillion in discounted total health expenditures from 2004 to 2050.