American journal of preventive medicine
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Interventions to increase children's physical activity have had limited success. One reason may be that children and their parents overestimate children's levels of physical activity, although there is a small amount of data on this topic. ⋯ Most parents of inactive children wrongly consider their children to be sufficiently active; parents of children with a lower fat mass index appear to assume that their children are adequately active. Increasing awareness regarding health benefits of physical activity beyond weight control might help reverse misperceptions of physical activity levels and encourage behavior change.
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Low-income and minority children have higher rates of obesity and overweight. Greater understanding of their food access is important. Because of higher rates of walking to school in these populations, these children likely have greater exposure to the food environment immediately around their schools. Mobile food vendors are an understudied aspect of the food environment in U.S. urban areas. ⋯ Mobile food vendors in urban areas contribute to after-school snacking among children, and should be considered as a component of the school food environment.