Department of Biostatistics, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2011 Jun 7;278(1712):1626-32. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1890. Epub 2010 Nov 24.
A dramatic rise in obesity has occurred among humans within the last several decades. Little is known about whether similar increases in obesity have occurred in animals inhabiting human-influenced environments. We examined samples collectively consisting of over 20 000 animals from 24 populations (12 divided separately into males and females) of animals representing eight species living with or around humans in industrialized societies. In all populations, the estimated coefficient for the trend of body weight over time was positive (i.e. increasing). The probability of all trends being in the same direction by chance is 1.2 × 10(-7). Surprisingly, we find that over the past several decades, average mid-life body weights have risen among primates and rodents living in research colonies, as well as among feral rodents and domestic dogs and cats. The consistency of these findings among animals living in varying environments, suggests the intriguing possibility that the aetiology of increasing body weight may involve several as-of-yet unidentified and/or poorly understood factors (e.g. viral pathogens, epigenetic factors). This finding may eventually enhance the discovery and fuller elucidation of other factors that have contributed to the recent rise in obesity rates.
在过去几十年中，人类的肥胖率急剧上升。人们对于生活在人类环境中的动物是否也出现了类似的肥胖率增加现象知之甚少。我们检查了来自 24 个种群（12 个种群分别分为雄性和雌性）的超过 20000 只动物的样本，这些动物代表了生活在工业化社会中与人共处或周围的 8 个物种。在所有种群中，体重随时间变化的趋势估计系数为正（即增加）。所有趋势都朝同一方向发生的概率为 1.2×10(-7)。令人惊讶的是，我们发现，在过去几十年中，生活在研究群体中的灵长类动物和啮齿类动物以及野生啮齿动物、家犬和家猫的平均中年体重都有所上升。这些在生活在不同环境中的动物中的发现具有一致性，这表明一个有趣的可能性，即体重增加的病因可能涉及几个尚未确定和/或尚未充分了解的因素（例如病毒病原体、表观遗传因素）。这一发现最终可能会促进对导致肥胖率最近上升的其他因素的发现和更充分的阐明。
