Features of the built environment related to physical activity friendliness and children's obesity and other risk factors.

Objectives: We investigated the relationships among environmental features of physical activity friendliness, socioeconomic indicators, and prevalence of obesity (BMI status), central adiposity (waist circumference, waist-height ratio), and hypertension.

Design And Sample: The design was cross-sectional; the study was correlational. The sample was 911 kindergarteners through sixth graders from three schools in an urban school district residing in 13 designated neighborhoods.

Overweight and central adiposity in school-age children and links with hypertension.

The purpose of this study of school-age children was to estimate prevalence and interrelationships of overweight, central adiposity, and hypertension. It included 1,070 children in kindergarten through sixth grade (67% Hispanic, 26% African American, mean age = 8.9 years).

The cost of screening adolescents for overweight and hypertension using a community partnership model.

Objectives: (1) Determine the prevalence of overweight and high blood pressure (BP) among middle and high school students over a 2-year period and, (2) measure the cost and initial outcomes of screening.

Design: Cost and outcome description using a cross-sectional design sample. The target population was 12- to 19-year-old healthy students attending grades 7 through 12 at 3 proximal schools located in a large urban school district in Texas.

The relationship of ambulatory blood pressure to physical activity in a tri-ethnic population of obese and nonobese adolescents.

Background: The association between physical activity (PA) and ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) is documented in adults. This association and factors that may modify it, such as obesity, have not been reported in adolescents. The aims of this study were to determine the association of PA with ABP in 11- to 16-year-old adolescents, and to examine the modifying effects of obesity and other factors.