Penza, 6 December 2018. PenzaNews. 11,500 residents of the Penza region were diagnosed with obesity during medical examination in the period from January to October 2018. This was reported by the press service of the regional Ministry of Health.

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According to the ministry, deviations from normal weight were registered at 84,000 people, which makes up over 40% of the total number of examined residents, which was approximately 200,000 people.

Since the middle of November 2018 over 400 overweight Penza residents were sent to in-depth preventive counselling in health centres and offices of medical prevention.

Natalia Tyugaeva, the head of the Department for Organization of Medical Care and Health Resort Affairs under the Ministry of Health of the Penza region, noted that irrational nutrition of the residents and, as a result, the development of a number of diseases had become a scourge of our time.

"The Ministry of Health [of the region] supports the statement of Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova about the high prevalence of this problem among the population of our region. [ ... ] The worst thing is that every year the number of such persons increases by more than 1,000," she said.