en 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.
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.
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。
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.
