VOA标准英语2010年-Quality of Life Decreases as Weight In

Here in the United States, the rate of obesity¹ doubled over a span of 16 years.

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.

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 longevity². 

The effect of a disease — or a condition like obesity — can be tallied³ 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 obese⁴ person died sooner but also had years of poor health.

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.

"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."

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 analyze⁵ information for the 50 U.S. states separately, and also to identify trends by race and gender⁶.

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 — morbidity⁷.

"And for women, we found that morbidity played a greater role, but for men, mortality played a greater role," added Lubetkin.

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.

"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."

Speaking via Skype, Lubetkin pointed⁸ 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.

"We can say that 50 percent of the burden of obesity can be contributed by having no leisure time physical activity," she said.

1 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

2 longevity   

n.长命；长寿

参考例句：

• Good habits promote longevity.良好的习惯能增长寿命。
• Human longevity runs in families.人类的长寿具有家族遗传性。

3 tallied   

v.计算，清点( tally的过去式和过去分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合

参考例句：

• The girl tallied them with her eyes for a moment. 新娘用目光把这些化妆品清点了一下。 来自教父部分
• His account of the accident tallied with hers. 他对事故的陈述和她的相吻合。 来自辞典例句

4 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

5 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

6 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

7 morbidity   

n.病态；不健全；发病；发病率

参考例句：

• MC's also significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality induced by honeybee venom. 肥大细胞同样也能显著降低蜜蜂毒液诱发疾病的发病率和死亡率。 来自互联网
• The result shows that incidence of myopia morbidity is 44.84%. 结果表明：近视眼的发病率为44.84%。 来自互联网

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。