研究:懷雙胞胎的母親更長壽

Having two babies at a time is associated with a longer life, according to a new study. But that's not because doubling up on dirty diapers increases life span; instead, moms of twins are physically stronger in the first place.

一項最新的研究發現，育有雙胞胎的母親壽命較長。當然這倒不是說每天多洗一堆尿布能使人長壽，而是能生雙胞胎的婦女首先身體就不會差。

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, focused on a "natural fertility" Population of women in 1800s Utah, so the results may not apply in today's in vitro fertilization (IVF) world.

刊登在英國《皇家學會學報B刊》的這篇文章以19世紀美國猶他州"自然受孕"的婦女爲研究的主體，所以它的研究成果在現代這個體外受精盛行的社會或許並不太適用。

The research team used the Utah Population Database, an enormous genealogical record of Utah residents dating back to the early 1800s. From the database, they pulled family records of women who were born between 1807 and 1899 and who lived to be at least 50, so they experienced their full range of reproductive years.

研究小組查閱了猶他州居民信息數據庫，該數據庫儲存的信息最早可追溯到19世紀初期。研究人員從數據庫中挑選出生於1807年至1899年間，且壽命不低於50歲的婦女的家庭信息，以便掌握她們的詳細情況。

They excluded widows and wives in polygamous families to ensure they were comparing similar women.

他們沒有采用喪偶或有一夫多妻家庭背景的婦女的信息，以確保他們研究的是同一個人。

The result was a database of 58,786 women, 4,603 of whom had at least one set of twins.

在符合條件的58786名婦女當中，研究人員發現有4603名婦女至少生過一次雙胞胎。

The researchers compared the moms of twins with the moms of singletons, looking for differences in life span, number of children, time between pregnancies and length of fertility, all measures of health.

接下來研究人員將這些婦女的各項數據進行了對比，比如壽命、有幾個孩子、每次懷孕間隔多久、育齡時間持續多久，這些都是衡量健康水平的指標。

The researchers found that moms of twins beat moms of only singletons on every measure. They lived longer, had longer reproductive life spans, needed less time to recover between pregnancies, and had more children overall.

經對比研究人員發現，比起僅有一個孩子的母親，雙胞胎的母親各項指標都要佔優。她們壽命更長，育齡時間更久，產後恢復時間更短，當然孩子也更多。