This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是VOA慢速英语健康报告。
A new study examines and compares adult death rates worldwide over the last forty years. For each country, researchers estimated the probability that a fifteen-year-old today will die an early death before the age of sixty. They found that the country with the lowest risk of premature death for women is Cyprus. For men the country with the best rate is Iceland.
一项新的研究调查和对比了在过去40年全球范围内的成人死亡率。研究人员对每个国家现年15岁的人们在60岁前过早死亡的可能性做了一项评估。结果他们发现，女性过早死亡率最低的国家是塞浦路斯，而男性过早死亡率最低的则是冰岛。
The study estimated mortality rates for people age fifteen to fifty-nine in one hundred eighty-seven countries. The report appeared last week in the Lancet medical journal.
这项研究评估了187个国家，15到59岁的人群的死亡率情况，并发表在上周出版的柳叶刀医学杂志上。
Worldwide, in the last forty years, death rates have decreased nineteen percent for men. But the study found that death rates for women have fallen by thirty-four percent.
在过去的40年当中，全球范围内男性的死亡率下降了19%。但这项研究发现，女性的死亡率下降了34%。
Chris Murray from the University of Washington in the Pacific Northwest led the study. He says major progress has been made since nineteen seventy in reducing deaths of mothers and children. But he points to growing inequalities in adult mortality -- a "massive spread" between countries with the highest rates and those with the lowest.
来自太平洋西北部的华盛顿大学的克里斯·穆雷（Chris Murray）主导了这项研究。他表示，自20世纪70年代以来，在降低母亲和儿童死亡率方面取得了巨大的进展。但他指出，高死亡率和低死亡率国家之间日益增长的不均衡性有扩张和蔓延之势。
For example, for men in Swaziland, the difference between the best rate and the worst rate is nine times higher. The study did find improvements in sub-Saharan Africa in the last five years, however, possibly as a result of expanded efforts against AIDS.
例如，斯威士兰的男性，其最高死亡率和最低死亡率之间的差异高达9倍。该研究的确发现，在过去5年中，撒哈拉以南非洲有了一定的改善，但是，这可能是对抗艾滋病造成的结果。
But in the last twenty years, H.I.V. and the collapse of the Soviet Union helped raise death rates in thirty-seven countries worldwide. Also, the study says the United States fell from thirty-fourth to forty-ninth in female mortality and from forty-first to forty-fifth for men. Those estimates put the country behind western Europe as well as countries like Albania, Chile and Tunisia.
但在过去的20年中，艾滋病病毒和苏联解体，造成全球37个国家的死亡率攀升。该研究还称，美国女性死亡率排名从第34位下降到第49位，而男性死亡率则从第41位下降到第45位。这些评估数据使得美国落后于西欧国家，与阿尔巴尼亚、智利和突尼斯相类似。
The researchers noted a big change in the list of countries with the lowest adult mortality over the past forty years. Only three countries have stayed in the top ten for the lowest male death rates all that time. Those countries are Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway.
研究人员指出，过去40年，最低成人死亡率国家名单发生了巨大的变化。这期间，仅有三个国家一直保持在最低男性死亡率国家排名的前十位，他们是瑞典、荷兰和挪威。
The researchers say estimating and preventing early deaths in adults is just as important as improving child survival. Millions of children die before their fifth birthday. But the researchers say three times as many adults die before their sixtieth.
研究人员表示，评估和预防成年人早逝与提高儿童存活率同样重要。数百万儿童15岁之前就已死亡，但研究人员称，60岁以前死亡的成年人人数是其（儿童死亡人数的）三倍。