Discussion
According to Rose & Day [7] as the distribution of a particular health related characteristic in a population shifts up or down as a whole, while keeping its dispersion unchanged,the mean and the prevalence of extreme values will be correlated.
The observed association indicates how much the mean value of an attribute can predict the prevalence of the extreme values. Thus, the more the BMI
distribution is displaced towards higher values for the total population, the higher the prevalence of obesity, and viceversa.
In the present study, the mean BMI of both male and female adult populations of 26 Brazilian capitals was positively correlated with obesity prevalence.