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Men who were grossly overweight at the age of 18 had nearly 50 percent less chance of being married by their 30s and 40s, said an international conference on obesity held in Amsterdam on Thursday.
The findings, which held true regardless of the men's intellectual performance or socio-economic position, could suggest that women rank a man's appearance higher than other traits when choosing a partner.
"Yes, that may be one explanation," researcher Malin Kark of the Swedish Karolinska Institutet, told reporters on the sidelines of the four-day gathering hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.
Kark's study was conducted among more than 500,000 Swedish men born between 1951 and 1961.
It found that men who had been obese at 18 were 46 percent less likely to be married in 1991, when they were aged between 30 and 40, than men with no weight problem, and 45 percent less likely by 2004.
For men who were overweight but not obese at 18, the chances of marriage were somewhat higher - 10 percent lower than for men of normal weight in their 30s and nine percent lower in their forties.
"We think this shows that there is stigmatization of obese young men that continues into adulthood - in their working life and also in inter-personal relationships," said Kark.
While no information was available on the men's adult weight, other studies have found that obese adolescents were likely to become obese adults, she added.
The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2005 about 1.6 billion adults were overweight, of which at least 400 million were obese.
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(Agencies) |
上周四在阿姆斯特丹召開的一個國際肥胖研討會稱，18歲時體重就嚴重超標的男性到三四十歲成婚的幾率（比正常體重的人）低近50%。
研究結果說明，與其它因素相比，女性在擇偶時更看重對方的外表。該研究未將男性的智力表現或社會經濟地位等因素考慮在內。
瑞典卡羅林斯卡研究院的研究員瑪林?卡克在會下接受記者采訪時說：“對，這可能是一種解釋。”這一為期四天的會議由歐洲肥胖研究協會主辦。
卡克對1951年至1961年間出生的50萬名瑞典男性進行了調查研究。
研究發現，與正常體重的男性相比，18歲時就已肥胖的男性到1991年他們三四十歲時結婚的幾率要低46%，到2004年結婚的幾率低45%。
對于體重超標、但18歲時并不肥胖的男性來說，他們成婚的幾率稍高一點——他們在30多歲時成婚的幾率比正常體重男性低10%，40多歲成婚的幾率低9%。
卡克說：“我們認為，這表明有關肥胖年輕男士的一種負面印象會持續到他們的成年時期——無論是在他們的工作中還是在人際關系中。”
她說，這些調查對象成年時期的體重信息不得而知，但其它研究發現，青少年時期肥胖的人成年之后也很可能會存在肥胖問題。
據世界衛生組織估計，2005年全球體重超標的成年人約為16億，其中至少有4億人肥胖。
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