ご指名質問回答:gain its hold
UG先生からご指名質問を頂きましたのでお答えします。手持ちの辞書で確認してみますと見出しのholdは第二語義の「＜…に対する＞影響力、支配力」（『Wisdom英和辞典(第3版)』三省堂)そしてgainは第四語義の「<体重・速度など> を増す」（ibid)に相当します。以上を踏まえた上で本文の内容も考慮に入れますとgain its holdを含む見出しは「肥満は幼少期に鍵があることが分かった」と意訳できますでしょうか。(Shou-VR*)
Obesity Is Found to Gain Its Hold in Earliest Years
For many obese adults, the die was cast by the time they were 5 years old. A majornew study of more than 7,000 children has found that a third of children who were overweight in kindergarten were obese by eighth grade. And almost every child who was very obese remained that way.
Some obese or overweight kindergartners lost their excess weight, and some children of normal weight got fat over the years. But every year, the chances that a child would slide into or out of being overweight or obese diminished. By age 11, there were few additional changes: Those who were obese or overweight stayed that way, and those whose weight was normal did not become fat.
“The main message is that obesity is established very early in life, and that itbasically tracks through adolescence to adulthood,” said Ruth Loos, a professor of preventive medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who was not involved in the study.
These results, surprising to many experts, arose from a rare study that tracked children’s body weight for years, from kindergarten through eighth grade. Experts say they may reshape approaches to combating the nation’s obesity epidemic, suggesting that efforts must start much earlier and focus more on the children at greatest risk.
