Physical Activity, Inactivity, and Nutrition Behavior Among Children: Investigating Compensation and Transfer Effects

The increasing prevalence of overweight children is an important public health problem in the United States. Nearly 1/3 of children are considered to be at risk for being overweight and currently more than 9 million children over 6 years of age are considered obese (Ogden et al. 2002; Koplan et al. 2005). Obesity and being overweight is a risk factor for several diseases: type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer (Eaton et al. 2006).