VOA标准英语2011--Premature Babies Have Higher Death Rates

Premature 1 Babies Have Higher Death Rates in Young Adulthood 2

早产儿成年后死亡风险高

Premature babies have more than their share of health problems early in life and now a new study finds they also face an increased risk of premature death well into adulthood.

早产儿生命早期出现健康问题的可能性比较大。现在，一份新的研究发现，他们在成年后出现早夭的风险也比较大。

Premature babies are more common now than they were a few decades ago in the United States and many other countries, and medical advances mean that even very premature babies are more likely to survive. But does early birth have an impact on health when those babies grow up?

在美国和其他国家，早产儿比十多年前更加普遍。医疗方面的进步意味着早产儿存活下来的几率更大。但是，早产对这些婴儿成年后的健康状况有没有影响呢？

To find out, Stanford University researcher Dr. Casey Crump and his colleagues used a database of 670,000 people born in Sweden in the 1970s.

为了查明这一点，斯坦福大学研究人员Casey Crump医生和他的同事使用了70年代在瑞典出生的670,000人的医疗记录。

"We found that people who were born preterm had a higher risk of dying in young adulthood than those who were born full-term," Crump says. "And that risk of mortality increased the earlier in pregnancy 3 that one was born."

“我们发现，早产者比足月出生者在刚刚进入成年的时候死亡的风险更高。提早出生的时间越长，死亡的风险越高。”

Even a baby born just a couple of weeks early had an increased risk of death decades later.

即使提早出生几周的婴儿几十年后死亡的风险也有所增加。

That premature babies have a higher death rate in the first years of life is not surprising, but Crump says it had been thought that the risk decreased as the child got older.

早产婴儿在生命的最初几年死亡的风险比较高，这是不足为奇的。但是Crump表示，过去人们认为，随着早产儿逐渐长大，夭折的风险逐渐降低。

"We found that that was true, at least in late childhood and adolescence 4. However, in young adulthood, an increased risk of mortality reemerged. And that was due to various causes, including respiratory and endocrine and heart disease - conditions that may have cumulative 5 health effects that don't manifest until young adulthood."

“我们发现，这一点是正确的，至少在儿童期的末期和青春期。然而，在成年之后，死亡的风险重新增加。这是由各种各样的原因造成的，包括呼吸道，内分泌和心脏疾病——这些疾病对健康的影响是累积的，到刚刚成年的时候才开始显现出来。”

A few years ago, a study published by the World Health Organization estimated that, globally, 10 percent of babies were born prematurely 6.

几年前，世界卫生组织发表的一份研究估计，全球有10%的婴儿是早产的。

Crump says the findings of his study underscore the need to reduce the number of preterm births.

Crump表示，他们的研究结果进一步强调了降低早产儿数量的必要性。

"It's extremely important for pregnant women to have regular prenatal care to reduce their risk of delivering preterm. And also, for survivors 7 of preterm births to avoid other risk factors for disease, like smoking or obesity 8, in order to offset 9 the increased risk that we found."

“孕妇必须进行常规的孕期护理，降低早产的风险，这是非常重要的。同时，早产儿的幸存者必须避免其他致病的风险因素，例如吸烟或肥胖，以此来弥补我们所发现的风险。”