Children born to obese women were 35 percent more likely to die prematurely in adulthood, according to a study released on Aug. 7 that warned of a growing epidemic.
Researchers in Scotland traced 37,709 children of 28,540 women who gave birth between 1950 and 1976.
The children were aged from 34 to 61 at the time of the study published in the online journal bmj.com. Researchers included the data of 6,551 children that had already died prior to the start of the study.
Of the mothers, 21 percent were overweight — meaning a body mass index (BMI) or height-to-weight ratio of 25 to 29.9 — and four percent obese, with a BMI of 30 or more, when they gave birth.
“The offspring of obese mothers were 35 percent and those of overweight women 11 percent more likely to die before the age of 55 years than those of normal-weight mothers,” study co-author Rebecca Reynolds, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Edinburgh, told AFP.
The team also found that the children of obese mothers were 42 percent more at risk of being admitted to hospital for heart disease as adults.
“Our results suggest that the intrauterine (womb) environment has a crucial and long-lasting effect on risk of premature mortality in offspring,” the study said.
(AFP)
過胖女性生下的小孩在成年時早逝的機率多了百分之三十五，根據八月七日一項警告該流行病日益盛行的研究指出。
蘇格蘭的研究人員追蹤在一九五０至一九七六年間、由兩萬八千五百四十名女性所生下的三萬七千七百零九名孩童。
當這研究刊載於《英國醫學期刊》線上版時，這些子女年齡介於三十四至六十一歲之間。研究人員把在研究開始前已死亡的六千五百五十一名子女也納入資料。
這些母親在生產時，有百分之二十一屬於過重，也就是身體質量指數BMI值在二十五至二十九點九之間；另有百分之四是屬於肥胖，也就是BMI值大於或等於三十。
研究共同作者、愛丁堡大學新陳代謝醫學教授雷蓓佳．萊諾斯告訴法新社表示：「肥胖與過重母親的子女，比正常體重母親的子女，在五十五歲以前死去的機率分別多出百分之三十五與百分之十一。」
團隊也發現，過胖母親的小孩在成人後罹患心臟疾病送醫的機率多了百分之四十二。
研究指出：「我們的研究結果認為，子宮環境對子女是否早死有著關鍵與長期的影響。」
TODAY’S WORDS 今日單字
1. obese adj.
過胖的 (guo4 pang4 de5)
例: Nearly 300 million women are obese this year, according to the data.
(根據數據，今年有近三億女性是過胖的。)
2. epidemic adj.
傳染的；流行性的
(chuan2 ran3 de5; liu2 xing2 xing4 de5)
例: He was probably a victim of the worldwide influenza epidemic.
(他可能是全球性流行性感冒的受害者。)
3. intrauterine adj.
子宮內的 (zi3 gong1 nei4 de5)
例: Intrauterine insemination may be performed.
(子宮內授精是可行的。)
