不受关注的女生更易发胖

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Girls who feel unpopular more likely to get fat

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adolescent girls who rank themselves at the bottom of the social totem pole are more likely to gain weight over time than their peers with a more positive view of their social standing, new research shows.

Based on these findings, programs aiming to prevent overweight and obesity in teen girls should focus on helping them feel better about themselves, as well as improving their eating and exercise habits, study co-author Adina R. Lemeshow told Reuters Health.

In the study, conducted while Lemeshow was a graduate student at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, the researchers followed 4,446 girls aged 12 to 18 for 2 years. All were asked to rank their social standing on a 10-point \"ladder,\" with the bottom being \"people who no one respects and no one wants to hang around with\" and \"people in your school with the most respect and the highest standing\" at the top.

The average self-ranking was 7.7, while just 4 percent of the girls ranked themselves at 4 or below. After adjusting for several factors that could influence both social status and weight gain, such as body mass index (BMI) at the study's outset, household income, and self-esteem, the researchers found that the girls who considered themselves to have the lowest social status were 69 percent more likely to have a 2-point increase in BMI over the following 2 years.

This is equivalent to gaining about 11 pounds more than expected, Lemeshow, who now works for the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, said in an interview.

\"For girls, it could be useful to have programs that focus on personal skills or how to face social problems and challenges\" when seeking to prevent obesity, she said.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Drs. Clea McNeely and Robert Crosnoe of Johns Hopkins University point out that low social, political and economic status are known to be fundamental causes of disease.

The current study findings suggest that self-perceived, subjective social status can also lead to illness, they note. But interventions designed to address obesity in the context of social status must be designed carefully, they add.

\"Grouping together multiple at-risk youth to deliver some behavioral intervention can make things worse by creating a new peer culture organized around the very behaviors that the intervention was trying to change.\"

McNeely and Crosnoe call for a better understanding of how teens influence one another's health behavior to ensure that such interventions are effective.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSLAU87856720080108

纽约（路透社健康）：新的研究显示，相比于那些自我评估比较积极的少女，那些自我感觉处于社会下层的少女更易随着年龄增大而发胖。作者认为，为了预防少女超重和肥胖，除了改善她们的饮食和运动，也应该重点帮助她们进行一些训练自我如何面对各种社会问题和挑战的个人技能，以建立自信。

研究人员共随访了4446名12至18岁的女生。所有的女孩都被要求对自己的社会地位进行“10分制”的评定，最低分的一项是“无人尊重，无人愿意接近”，最高分项是“在学校的地位最高，所有人都很尊重你”。平均自我评分是7.7分，只有4%的女孩给自己的评分是4分或4分以下。在调整了一些可能同时影响社会地位和体重的因素，包括入学时的体质指数、家庭收入、自尊心之后，研究人员发现那些对自我评价最低的女孩的体重有69%的可能会在接下去的2年中升高两个百分点，这样的结果相当于比正常情况增加11磅的重量。他们指出，为了预防肥胖，女孩子们进行一些训练自我如何面对各种社会问题和挑战的个人技能是很有用的。

在该研究的附加评论中，来自约翰霍普金斯大学的学者说，社会、政治、经济地位低下是疾病的重要原因，自我认知和主观评定的社会地位也可以引发疾病。但是根据社会地位背景设计一些防治肥胖的干预措施应该更谨慎一些。把一些存在此类风险的少女聚集起来开展一些行为干预可能会把情况变得更糟，因为在干预原有的行为的过程中，可能会出现新的类似的文化。他们呼吁对青少年健康的互相影响进行更深的探讨，这样才能保证干预措施更有效。