Girls who feel unpopular may gain weight
(Agencies)

CHICAGO - Where a teenage girl sees herself on her school's social ladder may sway her future weight, a study of more than 4,000 girls finds. Those who believed they were unpopular gained more weight over a two-year period than girls who viewed themselves as more popular. Researchers said the study showed how a girl's view of her social status has broader health consequences.
The girls in the study were still growing — their average age was 15 — and all of them gained some weight. However, those who rated themselves low in popularity were 69 percent more likely than other girls to increase their body mass index by two units, the equivalent of gaining about 11 excess pounds. (The body mass index, or BMI, is a calculation based on height and weight.)
Girls who put themselves on the higher rungs of popularity also gained some excess weight, but less — about 6 1/2 pounds.
Both groups, on average, fell within ranges considered normal. But a gain of two BMI units over two years is more than the typical weight gain for adolescent girls, the researchers said.
"How girls feel about themselves should be part of all obesity prevention strategies," said the study's lead author, Adina Lemeshow, who began the study as a Harvard School of Public Health graduate student. She now works at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The research, appearing in January's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, used data from an ongoing study used frequently by scientists studying childhood obesity.
Weight and height data were reported by the girls themselves rather than getting weighed and measured by doctors; that's a weakness in the study that the researchers acknowledged.
The researchers took into account the girls' weight and BMI at the start of the study, along with their diet, household income, race/ethnicity and whether they'd reached puberty — and still found the link.
In the study, perceived popularity was measured in 1999 by how the girls reacted to a question next to a picture of a 10-rung ladder: "At the top of the ladder are the people in your school with the most respect and the highest standing. At the bottom are the people who no one respects and no one wants to hang around with. Where would you place yourself on the ladder?"
The researchers put the girls into two groups: the 4,264 who said they were on rung 5 or above, and the 182 who said they were on rung 4 or below. The weight gain link was based on those two groups.
Clea McNeely of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called the study strong. She said she wanted to know more about the 4 percent of girls who rated themselves below average in popularity, particularly whether they already were gaining weight faster before they rated themselves as unpopular.
"The reason this paper is so important is it has broader implications beyond weight gain," said McNeely, who was not involved in the research but wrote an accompanying editorial. "Subjective social status is not just an uncomfortable experience you grow out of, but can have important health consequences."
Experts know little about how to intervene in teenagers' peer groups to improve health, McNeely said, but when adults set standards in schools, students treat one another with more respect.
Teenagers may give grown-ups "bored looks," she said, but "adults are still the most important influential figures in their lives."
The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

实在看不下去啦，机器翻译实在害人不浅
（据报道）那些自认为不受欢迎的女孩易增肥
芝加哥－根据对4000多名少女的调查研究，认为少女在学校的社会地位将左右着她们日后的体重。那些认为自己并不受欢迎的女孩在未来的两年时间段里将比自认为受欢迎的女孩增加更多的体重。研究者说：“研究结果显示少女们如何评价她们的社会地位将对她们未来的健康有更为深远的意义。”
参与调查研究的少女们正处于成长期，她们的平均年龄为15岁，而且她们的体重都不同程度地有所增加。然而，那些自认为不受欢迎的女孩在体重指数上比其他女孩多两个单位的比例为69%，也就是多增重11磅。（体重指数就是身高和体重的计算指数）
那些自认为受欢迎的女孩也同样增重，但不大于6.5磅
平均起来来说，这两组在一定的范围内都认为是正常的，但研究者认为对青春期女孩来说，在两年内体重指数增长两个单位确属超标。
“女孩如何看待她们的社会地位应当成为防止肥胖战略的一个组成部分”Adina Lemeshow这样认为。她是这一调查研究的创始人，当她还是哈佛大学公共健康学院的一位研究生时就已开始了这项研究，她目前服务于纽约市健康及精神卫生保健部。
该项研究发表在一月份的儿科及青春期医学杂志上，它用数字形式引用了科学家在长期对青少年肥胖调查研究中所得的结果。
身高及体重都是女孩们自己提供的而非医生们检测的结果，研究者认为这是本项研究的一大弊端。
从研究的开始阶段，研究者就将体重、体重指数、饮食、家庭收入、种族及她们是否已进入青春期等因素考虑在内，以便研究它们之间的关联。
在1999年的研究中，通过对女孩们的问卷调查来得出她们受欢迎的程度，也就是让她们针对十种阶梯型图示进行答题，做出反应。阶梯的顶端为学校中最德高望重的人。阶梯的最底端是最不受尊敬的无人愿与之相处的人。您认为您自己是处于阶梯的哪一阶段？
研究者将女孩们分为两组：其中4264例认为她们处于五级或五级以上，182例认为她们处于四级或四级以下。体重的增加关系就是基于这两个组的结果。
公共健康琼斯霍普金斯学院的Clea McNeely认为这项研究很有说服力。她说她更想多了解那些4%认为自己未达到”受欢迎程度“平均程度的女孩，尤其是在她们认为她们完全不受欢迎之前她们是否已经增加了体重。
Mcneely认为之所以该文章如此之重要的原因是该研究有着更为深远的意义，不仅仅是关于增重这一范畴。Mcneely并没有参与该项研究，但她写了一篇社论，“主观认定的社会地位不仅是成长过程中一个令人忧心的体验，它同时也对日后的健康状况起着至关重要的作用”
Mcneely说，专家们尚不知道该如何干预青少年群体以便她们更好、更健康地成长，但是当大人们在学校中制定标准，制定规矩，那么孩子们就应当更为尊重彼此。 （说回来，这段具体的意思我也没太明白）
青少年也许会很厌烦地看着这些大人们，但是大人们必竟是她们生命中最具影响力，最为重要的人物。
该项研究由国立健康学院资助。