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.

英国研究者日前公布，“诺贝尔奖”得主要比那些仅获提名的科学家寿命长将近两年，这表明社会地位能为“健康带来魔力”。

研究者称，此前有研究表明猴子的健康与地位之间确实存在联系，但到目前为止还很难对人做相同的研究，这是因为地位往往会给人带来更多财富，而拥有更多财富就能提高生活水平和医疗保健的水平。

瓦立克郡大学的经济学家安德鲁·奥斯尔德说：“地位似乎拥有某种能给人带来健康的魔力。”安德鲁和马修·罗伯伦共同进行了这项研究，马修曾是瓦尔克大学的研究生研究员，现在他是一名政府经济学家。

安德鲁在瓦尔克大学的一个新闻发布会上说：“我们进行数据修正后发现，得过诺贝尔奖的科学家的寿命明显要长两年。但其中的原因是什么，我们还不得而知。”

这项于本月公布的名为“死亡与不朽”的研究之所以将“诺贝尔奖”得主作为研究对象，主要是因为他们可谓“一夜成名”。

研究者对524位男性进行了研究，其中包括135位“诺贝尔奖”得主和389位提名者，这些人都是1901年至1950年间“诺贝尔”物理学奖和化学奖的角逐者。

为了避免性别上的差异，此项研究仅在男性中开展。参加此项研究的总人数原为528人，但由于战争和其他非自然原因，其中有四人已经去世。

提名者小组的平均寿命略高于76岁。

而“诺贝尔”奖得主平均寿命则比提名者长1.4年，为77.2岁。