◎鄭寺音

Women are more likely than men to suffer damage to their health from being in a strained marriage, research suggests.

研究顯示，女性比男性還容易因為婚姻關係緊張而傷害健康。

US psychologists found wives in tense marriages were prone to risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. In comparison, husbands seemed relatively immune from such problems.

美國心理學家發現，身處緊張婚姻的妻子，容易有心臟病、中風與糖尿病的風險因子。相較來說，丈夫似乎對這樣的問題相對免疫。

Details of the study, based on 276 couples who had been married for an average of 20 years were presented to the American Psychosomatic Society.

這份研究以276對結婚平均20年的夫婦為對象，研究結果向美國身心醫學協會發表。

Each couple filled out questionnaires designed to assess the good and bad aspects of married life.

每對夫婦填寫用來評估婚姻生活優缺點的問卷。

They were also rated for how depressed they appeared to be, based on their self-reported symptoms. Doctors then carried out a battery of tests to assess whether or not the volunteers were showing signs of metabolic syndrome.

他們也根據自行通報的症狀，接受調查憂鬱程度的評分。醫師接著進行一連串測試，評估志願受試者是否出現代謝症候群的跡象。

Women in strained marriages were more likely to be depressed and to have a greater number of symptoms of metabolic syndrome.

在緊張婚姻中的女性，比較可能憂鬱，也會有較多代謝症候群症狀。

新聞辭典

strained ：形容詞，緊張的。例句：Relations between the two countries have become strained recently.（這兩個國家最近關係緊張。）

immune：形容詞，免於…的。例句：He seems to be immune to colds - he just never gets them.（他似乎對感冒免疫，就是從來沒感冒過。）

a battery of ：一連串。

自由時報-980326

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