The study's goals are to: 1) examine the association between obesity and children's academic and developmental outcomes in elementary school; 2) examine the association between neighborhood characteristics, especially the supply of groceries and food price levels and childhood obesity; and 3) simulate the impact of changes in neighborhood food price and availability on children's outcomes.

The analyses will use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99, a nationally representative data set that follows a cohort of children from kindergarten up to grade 5. The data set contains information on a wide range of child outcomes as well as detailed geographic identifiers that enable inclusion of neighborhood level factors in the analysis. The study design is prospective in nature allowing examination of changes in health outcomes of young children over time.