The overall goal of the Framingham Children's Study (FCS) is to identify early childhood determinants of eating and exercise behaviors that relate to cardiovascular disease. The investigators have been following 100 families who are 3rd and 4th generation descendants of the original Framingham Heart Study cohort. The subjects were age 3-5 years at the onset of the study will be age 11-14 years at the beginning of the next grant cycle. There has been excellent cohort maintenance with over 90% of the original families continuing to participate. This revised application proposes to extend the FCS to permit the evaluation of the determinants of change in the child's risk behaviors and other risk factors from early childhood through puberty to mid to late teens, a time when the individual's risk profile should better reflect his/her cardiovascular risk status as an adult. The FCS is a longitudinal source of data on diet, activity and family and environmental factors in children. The investigators have collected extensive dietary data with an average of 32 days of diet records and almost 50 days of electronically monitored physical activity data for each subject. Additional data include psychosocial and anthropometric data on children and their parents. The extension of the FCS will allow continued monitoring of eating behaviors and physical activity habits of the children and their parents, as well as the personal environmental and behavioral factors influencing changes in the child's physical activity, diet, blood pressure, lipids and obesity from pre-school into the late teen years.
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