Men who were grossly overweight at the age of 18 had nearly 50 percent less chance of being married by their 30s and 40s, said an international conference on obesity held in Amsterdam on Thursday.

The findings, which held true regardless of the men's intellectual performance or socio-economic position, could suggest that women rank a man's appearance higher than other traits when choosing a partner.

"Yes, that may be one explanation," researcher Malin Kark of the Swedish Karolinska Institutet, told reporters on the sidelines of the four-day gathering hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.

Kark's study was conducted among more than 500,000 Swedish men born between 1951 and 1961.

It found that men who had been obese at 18 were 46 percent less likely to be married in 1991, when they were aged between 30 and 40, than men with no weight problem, and 45 percent less likely by 2004.

For men who were overweight but not obese at 18, the chances of marriage were somewhat higher - 10 percent lower than for men of normal weight in their 30s and nine percent lower in their forties.

"We think this shows that there is stigmatization of obese young men that continues into adulthood - in their working life and also in inter-personal relationships," said Kark.

While no information was available on the men's adult weight, other studies have found that obese adolescents were likely to become obese adults, she added.

The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2005 about 1.6 billion adults were overweight, of which at least 400 million were obese.

上周四在阿姆斯特丹召开的一个国际肥胖研讨会称，18岁时体重就严重超标的男性到三四十岁成婚的几率（比正常体重的人）低近50%。

研究结果说明，与其它因素相比，女性在择偶时更看重对方的外表。该研究未将男性的智力表现或社会经济地位等因素考虑在内。

瑞典卡罗林斯卡研究院的研究员玛林·卡克在会下接受记者采访时说："对，这可能是一种解释。"这一为期四天的会议由欧洲肥胖研究协会主办。

卡克对1951年至1961年间出生的50万名瑞典男性进行了调查研究。

研究发现，与正常体重的男性相比，18岁时就已肥胖的男性到1991年他们三四十岁时结婚的几率要低46%，到2004年结婚的几率低45%。

对于体重超标、但18岁时并不肥胖的男性来说，他们成婚的几率稍高一点--他们在30多岁时成婚的几率比正常体重男性低10%，40多岁成婚的几率低9%。

卡克说："我们认为，这表明有关肥胖年轻男士的一种负面印象会持续到他们的成年时期--无论是在他们的工作中还是在人际关系中。"

她说，这些调查对象成年时期的体重信息不得而知，但其它研究发现，青少年时期肥胖的人成年之后也很可能会存在肥胖问题。

据世界卫生组织估计，2005年全球体重超标的成年人约为16亿，其中至少有4亿人肥胖。