[Epidemiology of obesity].

In the GDR about 20% of the males and 40% of the females were estimated to be obese. In the country obesity is more spread than in the town. Increased disablement of obese persons leads to reduction of the national income. With higher expenses for nutrition the frequency of obestiy increases. Hypophages and hyperphages are differently distributed in persons with normal weight and obese ones, so that the average establishments do not reflect the differentiated situation in nutrition. Obesity correlates with the type of structure; with increasing obesity dominate pyknomorphous tendencies of growth. Also in normal weight pyknomorphous persons have a higher proportion of fat. We should speak of obesity in such a case, when, taking into consideration biological differentiations, the normal proportion of the fat in the body is increased by more than 1/3. For epidemiological serial examinations the degrees of relative weight basing on optimum weight are a favourable basis for the classification of obesity.