A woman’s height and weight appear to play a greater part in her chance of enjoying a long life than a man’s, according to a study investigating a person’s likelihood of reaching the age of 90.

Women who are taller than average, standing at 175 cm or above, were 31 percent more likely to enter their ninth decade compared with those standing at 160 cm or less, the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health suggested. The same result wasn’t found in men.

The researchers at Maastricht University wanted to answer why the spike in life expectancies in Western countries has plateaued in recent decades. Existing work indicates the obesity epidemic could be one culprit, as well as low levels of exercise.

Most past studies into longevity featured only men, or a combination of men and women. This work, therefore, offers a new perspective by looking into how BMI and exercise levels might affect the lifespan of men and women separately.

To investigate, the team used data from the Netherlands Cohort Study, which was started in 1986, and collected information on over 120,000 men and women aged between 55 and 69 years old living in 204 Dutch municipalities.

From this pool, the researchers assessed data from on 3,646 male and 4,161 female respondents born between 1916 and 1917.

At the start of the study, the respondents answered questions about their lives (like how much they smoked, drank alcohol and spent walking per day), and detailed variables such as their weight, height, and their weight when they were 20 years old. Participants were categorized into three groups: those who exercised for less than 30 minutes; between 30 and 60 minutes; and for 1.5 hours or more.

In women aged between 68 and 70, their height, current BMI and their weight gain since the age of 20 were associated with reaching the age of 90.

While exercising was found to boost the lifespan, working out for one hour a day was best suited to women before the effects plateaued. In men, there was no such cap.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【进入停滞期】jìnrù tíngzhìqī plateau reach a state or level of little or no growth or decline

【祸因】huòyīn culprit the source or cause of a problem

一项有关人活到90岁概率的调查研究显示，相较于男性，女性的身高和体重似乎在长寿方面发挥了更大的作用。

一项新研究显示，身高高于平均水平（即身高在175厘米以上）的女性活到90岁的概率比身高在160厘米以下的女性高31%。同样的结果在男性身上没有发现。

研究结果发表在《流行病学和社区卫生》期刊上。

荷兰马斯特里赫特大学的研究人员想要找出西方国家预期寿命增长近几十年来进入停滞期的原因。目前的研究显示，普遍肥胖和缺乏运动可能是其中的两个原因。

过去大多数对寿命的研究主要针对男性，或者将男性和女性两个群体一起研究。

然而，这项研究通过分析BMI (身高体重指数)和运动水平分别对男性和女性的寿命产生何种影响，提供了一个新的视角。

为进行调查，研究小组使用了1986年启动的荷兰人群健康研究项目的数据，并收集了居住在204个荷兰市镇、年龄在55岁至69岁之间的12万多名男女的信息。

研究人员对在1916年至1917年出生的3646名男性受访者和4161名女性受访者的数据进行了评估。

在研究开始时，参与者回答了一些关于生活的问题，比如每天抽几支烟、喝几杯酒、走多少路等等，以及体重、身高和20岁时的体重等变量。参与者被分为三组——每天锻炼时间在30分钟以下的；30-60分钟的；1.5小时以上的。

在68岁至70岁的女性中，她们的身高、目前的BMI及20岁以来的体重增加情况都与其能否活到90岁有关。

尽管研究人员发现锻炼也能延长寿命，但对女性来说每天锻炼1小时最佳，之后的锻炼作用就到顶了。对男性来说，不存在这个时间上限。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)