幼儿早睡可以降低肥胖风险

    For VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.
    这里是美国之音慢速英语健康和生活方式报道。

    Getting a good night's sleep tonight could guard children against weight gain in the future.
    获得良好的夜间睡眠可以防止儿童未来体重增加。

    According to a new study, putting preschoolers in bed by 8 p.m. could reduce their chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life by half. Preschoolers are children around the age of 4 or 5.
    根据一项新的研究,让学龄儿童晚上8点前上床可以使他们未来的肥胖几率降低一半。学龄儿童是指年龄在四、五岁左右的儿童。

    The term ‘obese' refers to calculations of your Body Mass Index, what doctors call BMI. They use a person's height, weight and age to assess their amount of body fat. BMIs help tell whether a person is underweight, normal, overweight or obese.
    肥胖这个术语涉及到身体质量指数这种计算法,医生们称之为BMI。他们采用一个人的身高、体重和年龄来评估他们的身体脂肪量。体重质量指数可以帮助我们了解一个人是体重不足、正常还是肥胖。

    The World Health Organization says obesity can lead to serious long-term health problems like diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
    世界卫生组织表示,肥胖会导致像糖尿病、心脏疾病和中风等严重的长期健康问题。

    Researchers from the Ohio State University's College of Public Health have found that young children who go to bed after 9 p.m. are twice as likely to be obese later in life. The researchers wrote their findings in The Journal of Pediatrics.
    俄亥俄州立大学公共卫生学院的研究人员发现,晚上9点以后睡觉的幼儿将来肥胖的可能性翻了一倍。研究人员在《儿科》杂志上发表了他们的研究结果。

    The lead author of the study is Sarah Anderson. She is an associate professor of epidemiology. She studies how diseases spread and how they can be controlled. Anderson says that, for parents, the results of the study support the importance of creating a bedtime routine.
    该研究的主要作者是莎拉·安德森(Sarah Anderson)。她是流行病学副教授。她研究疾病如何传播以及可以如何加以控制。安德森表示,对家长来说,该研究结果证实了建立睡眠习惯的重要性。

    She says that having a usual bedtime routine is something "families can do to lower their child's risk" of becoming overweight.
    她说,各个家庭具备日常睡眠习惯可以降低他们孩子变肥胖的风险。

    A usual, early bedtime, Anderson adds, "is also likely to have positive benefits on behavior and on social, emotional and cognitive development."
    安德森补充说,日常早睡还可能对行为、社会、情绪以及认知发展具有正面效应。

    Researchers used data from 977 children for the study. These children are part of a larger project called the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The project follows healthy babies born in 1991 in 10 U.S. cities.
    研究人员在这项研究中采用了977位儿童的数据。这些孩子是《幼儿保育和青年发展研究》这个更大的项目的一部分。该项目跟踪研究了1991年在10个美国城市健康出生的婴儿。

    The children were 4 ½ years old when their mothers reported their usual weekday bedtime. Researchers then divided the children into three groups:
    在这些儿童4岁半时他们的妈妈开始报告他们在工作日的日常睡眠时间。研究人员随后将这些孩子分为三组:

    those who went to bed by 8 p.m. or earlier,
    晚上8点前睡觉的孩子

    those who went to bed between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. and
    晚上8点到9点之间睡觉的孩子

    those whose bedtimes were after 9 p.m.
    晚上9点以后睡觉的孩子

    When these children turned 15 years old, the researchers looked at their rates of obesity. Of those with the earliest bedtimes, only one out of 10 was obese. Of those who went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m., 16 percent became obese. And out of those with the latest bedtimes, 23 percent became obese.
    当这些孩子长大到15岁时,研究人员调查了他们的肥胖率。睡眠时间最早的孩子只有10%的人肥胖。晚上8到9点睡觉的孩子有16%的人肥胖。而睡觉时间最晚的孩子中有23%的人肥胖。

    Anderson said putting children in bed early does not mean they will immediately fall asleep. But, she adds, it makes it "more likely that children will get the amount of sleep they need to be at their best."
    安德森表示,让孩子早早上床并不意味着他们就会很快入睡。但是她补充说,这让孩子更有可能获得达到最佳状态所需的睡眠量。

    But Anderson says it is important to understand that having early bedtimes may be harder for some families than others. She says that, "families have many competing demands and there are trade-offs that get made." For example, she says, if some parents work late, that can push the children's bedtimes to later in the evening.
    但是安德森表示,早睡对一些家庭来说要比其它家庭更难,了解这点非常重要。她说,“各个家庭有许多竞争性的需求,并作出了一些权衡取舍。”她举例说,如果有些家长工作到很晚,这可能会让他们孩子的睡眠时间推迟到更晚。

    Is childhood obesity a worldwide problem?
    儿童肥胖是一个世界性难题吗?

    Obesity among children in the United States is a major health concern. About 17 percent of children and teenagers in the U.S. are considered obese. That is according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    美国儿童肥胖是一个重要的健康问题。大约17%的美国儿童和青少年被认为肥胖,这一数据来自于美国疾病控制和预防中心。

    The World Health Organization reported in 2014 that the number of overweight babies and young children worldwide had increased from 31 million in 1990 to 44 million in 2012. If that trend continues, the WHO warns, there will be 70 million obese children in the world by 2025.
    世界卫生组织2014年报告称,全球肥胖婴幼儿数量已经从1990年的2100万增长到2012年的4400万。世卫组织警告说,如果这种趋势持续下去,到2025年全球将会有7千万肥胖儿童。

    I'm Anna Matteo.
    我是安娜·马特奥。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利,未经授权请勿转载,违者必究!)