告诉吸烟者们“肺龄”有助于帮助他们戒烟

toola1

Telling smokers \"age\" of lungs helps them quit
LONDON (Reuters) - Smokers are more likely to kick the habit if they are told how \"old\" their lungs are, a British study found on Friday.

伦敦（路透社）－在Friday上的一个英国的研究发现，如果告诉吸烟的人他们的肺已经有多“老”了，会有助于帮助他们戒掉吸烟。

The concept of lung age -- measured by comparing a smoker's lungs to the age of a healthy person whose lungs function the same -- has helped patients better understand how smoking damages health, researchers had already found.

肺龄的概念－这个标准已经由研究者建立，就是测量吸烟者的肺的状况，和另外一个与他有相同肺功能的健康不吸烟的人相比较，这会有助于吸烟者更好的理解吸烟对他们的健康的损伤有多厉害。

But that information is also effective in convincing smokers to quit, said Gary Parkes, a family physician in Hertfordshire outside London, who led the study published in the British Medical Journal.

Gary Parkes是Hertfordshire的一个家庭医生，他是在英国医疗杂志上发表的这个研究的组织者，他说，传递这个信息给患者对让他们想戒烟是很有效的。

\"Telling smokers their lung age significantly improves the likelihood of them quitting smoking,\" Parkes and his colleagues wrote.

Parkes和他的同事发现，告诉吸烟者他们的肺龄会明显提高他们要戒烟的可能性。

Smoking kills about four million people each year, according to the World Health Organization. Tobacco is highly addictive and the leading preventable cause of both cancer and heart disease.

根据来自世界卫生组织的数据，吸烟每年会导致大概四百万人死亡。烟草很容易让人上瘾，同时也是造成癌症和心脏病的首要因素，同时也是可以戒掉的。

The study in five general medical practices outside London involved 561 long-term smokers older than 35 and began with a simple test to record the volume and rate at which the volunteers exhaled air from the lungs.

这项研究在伦敦以外的地方进行，有五个一般性的医学检查；561名年龄大于35岁的长期吸烟的人参加，开始是做一个简单的测试，记录下他们呼气的体积和速率。

One group received no detailed information about their results while the other people were given their lung age, shown a diagram of how smoking ages the lungs and told that quitting would slow the rate of damage.

一组不知道他们结果的详细信息，其他的组都得到了他们的肺龄，这个肺龄是通过图表的形式给出的，显示了吸烟是怎么老化他们的肺的，并告诉他们戒烟可以减缓这个对肺破坏的进程。

Everyone was also strongly encouraged to quit and offered help to do so. One year later, saliva tests showed that 13 percent of the smokers told their lung age had quit while only 6 percent of people in the other group had stopped.

每个人都很受鼓舞，并且也接受了戒烟的帮助。一年后，唾液检查显示13％的被告知肺龄的吸烟者戒烟了，而只有6％的另外一组（未被告知肺龄）戒烟了。

\"Anybody who had good, understandable information seemed more inclined to give up,\" Parkes said. \"The reason may be people had dreaded the worst and realized it was still worthwhile giving up.\"

Parkes说，“很好的理解了肺龄的意义的人看起来更容易戒掉吸烟，这可能是因为他们担心更坏的事情发生，同时也意识到及时放弃还是值得的”。

The study counters research showing such health information does not prod them to quit and underscores the benefits of early screening because 16 percent of the people in the study had undiagnosed emphysema, Parkes said.

Parkes表示，这个研究改变了以往那些认为提供类似的健康信息不会促进吸烟者戒烟的看法，而且显示了早期筛查的重要性，因为参与研究中的吸烟者中有16%的未诊断的肺气肿患者。

Giving people this kind of information could represent a cheap and easy way to get people to stop smoking and reduce smoking-related health problems that are putting pressure on health systems to treat.

给吸烟者提供这种信息可以帮助他们戒烟，降低与吸烟相关的健康问题，而这种信息的获得既便宜又简单。

\"The cost, if you like, is certainly within the economic framework of a good deal,\" Parkes said.

Parkes说：“至于费用问题，如果你喜欢，绝对是合算的。”