[The prevalence of obesity among the adult population of Kazakhstan].

The questionnaire method was used to study obesity incidence among 25107 subjects over 15 years of age living in the Northern, Southern and Western regions of Kazakhstan. Anthropometry was conducted, and incidence rate of certain diseases in the investigated subjects was recorded. Excessive body mass was revealed in 36.1%, among them obesity was diagnosed in 23.7%. The obesity incidence increases with aging and decreasing of physical load level. Obesity was more frequently observed among the urban women than among the rural, and it was less frequent among the urban than among the rural men. The incidence rate of obesity in the population of the Northern region of the Republic was significantly higher than that in the population of the Western and Southern regions. The incidence rate of arterial hypertension was 5-fold, that of coronary heart disease--4-fold, and of chronic diseases of the biliary tracts--3-fold higher in obese subjects as compared to those with normal body mass.