Scientists who have won a Nobel prize live nearly two years longer than those who were merely nominated, suggesting that social status confers "health-giving magic," British researchers said.

The researchers said there was evidence to link health and status in monkeys but it had been difficult until now to do the same for humans because status often brought more wealth, which improves living standards and medical care.

"Status seems to work a kind of health-giving magic," said Andrew Oswald, an economist at Warwick University who conducted the study with Matthew Rablen, a former Warwick postgraduate researcher who is now a government economist.

"Once we do the statistical corrections, walking across that platform in Stockholm apparently adds about two years to a scientist's life-span. How status does this, we just don't know," he said in a university press release.

The study entitled "Mortality and Immortality," published this month, focused on Nobel prize winners "as an ideal group to study as the winners could be seen as having their status suddenly dropped on them," it said.

The researchers studied 524 men -- 135 winners and 389 nominees, who were in the competition for the physics and chemistry prizes between 1901 and 1950.

They looked at one sex only to avoid differences in life span between sexes. The total had been 528, but they dropped four who died in war or from other causes that were not natural.

The average life span for the nominee group was just over 76 years.

Prize winners lived 1.4 years longer on average -- or 77.2 years -- than those who were nominated for the award.

英國研究者日前公布，“諾貝爾獎”得主要比那些僅獲提名的科學家壽命長將近兩年，這表明社會地位能為“健康帶來魔力”。

研究者稱，此前有研究表明猴子的健康與地位之間確實存在聯系，但到目前為止還很難對人做相同的研究，這是因為地位往往會給人帶來更多財富，而擁有更多財富就能提高生活水平和醫療保健的水平。

瓦立克郡大學的經濟學家安德魯·奧斯爾德說：“地位似乎擁有某種能給人帶來健康的魔力。”安德魯和馬修·羅伯倫共同進行了這項研究，馬修曾是瓦爾克大學的研究生研究員，現在他是一名政府經濟學家。

安德魯在瓦爾克大學的一個新聞發布會上說：“我們進行數據修正后發現，得過諾貝爾獎的科學家的壽命明顯要長兩年。但其中的原因是什么，我們還不得而知。”

這項于本月公布的名為“死亡與不朽”的研究之所以將“諾貝爾獎”得主作為研究對象，主要是因為他們可謂“一夜成名”。

研究者對524位男性進行了研究，其中包括135位“諾貝爾獎”得主和389位提名者，這些人都是1901年至1950年間“諾貝爾”物理學獎和化學獎的角逐者。

為了避免性別上的差異，此項研究僅在男性中開展。參加此項研究的總人數原為528人，但由于戰爭和其他非自然原因，其中有四人已經去世。

提名者小組的平均壽命略高于76歲。

而“諾貝爾”獎得主平均壽命則比提名者長1.4年，為77.2歲。