【摘要】
There are many known risk factors associated with suicide: those who take their own lives are statistically more likely to be white, male, and/or low-income. Surveys show that they are also more likely to have histories of depression, own fire arms and feel isolated. Many are divorced or have substance abuse problems. But a team of researchers found another risk factor that is less intuitive, even though it may be just as valid: living at a high altitude.
The team, lead by Dr. Barry Brenner from the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland Ohio, analyzed 19 years worth of cause-of-death data from all 2,584 U.S. counties (between 1979 and 1998). In their study, published in High Altitude Medicine & Biology, they compared the 50 counties with the highest suicide rate to the 50 counties with the lowest, and found that county altitude was on average almost eight times higher in the areas with high suicide rates.
Even when the researchers controlled for five other suicide-related factors — two measures of income,race, age and population density of the county — the correlation was still strong. Wrote the scientists:
Prior reports of increased suicides in the U.S. Mountain Region (e.g., Colorado) have prompted speculation that the excess is owing to greater access to rearms, increased isolation, or reduced income. Even after controlling for these variables in our analysis, the positive correlation between altitude and suicide still exists, which suggests that the increased suicide rate in the regions with greatest altitude, such as the Mountain Region, may be owing to, at least in part, its altitude per se.
The authors note that there may be physiological reasons why high altitude may contribute to suicides; low barometric pressure in mountainous regions, for example, causes the body to become less efficient in transporting oxygen from the air, and these changes can affect brain functioning. In addition, they note, it's only suicides, and not other deaths that are positively associated with higher altitudes. While the results still need to be replicated, they at least suggest that achieving the "mountain high" may come at a dangerous price.
【内容简介】
本篇文章开篇介绍了导致自杀的一般原因，如收入低，有抑郁症病史，感到孤独等，并由此引出一个新发现——自杀还与海拔有关。
接着，文章开始介绍这项研究的相关数据和过程，这其中还涉及到其他因素，如种族、年龄、密集程度等。
最后一段，文章从海拔对人生理的影响进行剖析，说明海拔通过影响人的生理，进而影响人的大脑功能，导致人们想不开而寻短见。
【词汇短语讲解】
①correlation 相互关系，相关，关联
e.g. Do you know the correlation between one's character and life?
你知道人的性格和生活的相互关系吗?
②prompt v. 提示，激起，促进 adj. 敏捷的，立刻的，迅速的
③excess n. 超过，过量，过剩 adj. 过量的，额外的
e.g. He always spends in excess of his income.
他总是入不敷出。
④文中的一些重点短语 associate with 与……有联系的 more likely to 更有可能的 compare…with……把……与……作比较
owing to 由于，归因于 in addition 另外
英语考证 > 四六级 > 四级 > 四级阅读