Americans continue to gain weight and it's having a negative impact on their quality of life, according to a new report.
Poor eating habits and a lack of exercise are two of the reasons people gain weight.
不良的饮食习惯和缺乏运动，是人们体重增加的两个原因。
Here in the United States, the rate of obesity doubled over a span of 16 years. But the increase in obesity has had a disproportionate impact on Americans' health and longevity.
美国的肥胖人数过去16年增加了一倍。肥胖率上升对美国人的健康及寿命产生了不成比例的影响。
The effect of a disease — or a condition like obesity — can be tallied by a measure called quality-adjusted life years lost. It's a way of showing in one number that, for example, a diabetic or an obese person died sooner but also had years of poor health.
疾病带来的影响-比如肥胖-可以通过所谓“质量调整生命年(quality adjusted life years)”来测量。比如，糖尿病人或肥胖的人可能会过早死亡，而且会有几年健康状况较差。
City College of New York professor Erica Lubetkin is one of the authors of a new study that looked at the loss of quality life years due to obesity and how that changed between 1993 and 2008.
纽约城市大学的艾瑞卡.路贝金教授参加研究肥胖如何导致质量生命年的减少，以及这种情况在1993至2008年间的变化。她是研究报告的作者之一。
"The rate of obesity significantly increased, in fact it was almost double, it was about 89 percent," she explained. "And with regard to the burden of disease it more than doubled, it increased over that 16 year period of time about 127 percent."
路贝金说：“肥胖率大幅增加，几乎增加了一倍，是大约百分之89。肥胖导致的疾病负担增加了一倍多，16年间增加了大约百分之127。”
Lubetkin and her co-author based their findings on a massive collection of data, covering 3.5 million people. That large data set allowed them to analyze information for the 50 U.S. states separately, and also to identify trends by race and gender.
路贝金和她的同事分析了约350万人的数据资料后得出了这个结果。这个庞大的资料库使他们能分别研究美国50个州的情况，并按种族和性别分类找出不同的发展趋势。
For example, one question they wanted to answer was whether the loss of quality life years was due to people dying sooner — mortality — or living in poor health — morbidity.
比如，他们想要回答的一个问题是，质量生命年的损失是人们过早死亡引起的，还是健康状况不佳引起的。
"And for women, we found that morbidity played a greater role, but for men, mortality played a greater role," added Lubetkin.
路贝金说：“我们发现，对女性而言，更多是由于健康状况不佳。对男性而言，是过早死亡。”
Black women, in particular, had higher rates of obesity throughout the 16 years studied, and they paid the biggest price in terms of quality-adjusted years of life lost.
在16年的研究期间，黑人女性的肥胖率比其他人群高，她们的质量生命年的损失也最大。
"In terms of the burden of disease, it increased for everyone, but in particular it was black women who had 31 percent more in 2008 quality-adjusted life years lost compared to black men. And compared to white women and white men, it was 50 percent higher."
路贝金说：“疾病负担对所有人都增加了，但以黑人女性最甚，2008年，黑人女性质量生命年的损失比黑人男性多百分之31，比白人女性和白人男性多百分之50。”
Speaking via Skype, Lubetkin pointed to a clear link between the lack of exercise and the bad health consequences of obesity. U.S. states where more people said they got no physical exercise outside work lost more quality adjusted life years.
路贝金指出，缺乏运动和肥胖引起的不良健康状态之间有明确的关联。在那些更多人工作之余一点都不运动的州，人们质量生命年的损失比其他州多。
"We can say that 50 percent of the burden of obesity can be contributed by having no leisure time physical activity," she said.
“可以说，肥胖症负担的百分之50都是工作之余没有体力活动所造成的。”
Lubetkin's paper is published in the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine."
路贝金的报告发表在《美国预防医学》杂志上。 |