Wang Y, et al. - Using the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort data, with 9,440 kindergarteners followed up from 1998 to 2007, researchers investigated the association of residential food environments (FEs) with childhood obesity and variation of the association across gender and urbanicity. There were mixed findings among genders on fruit/vegetable market associations with child weight status. In a US nationally representative study, there was the links between residential FEs and children's body mass index and obesity risk over a follow-up period of nine years. The findings are particularly important for those food outlets that are relatively sparsely distributed. Exposure to different FEs appeared to lead to different childhood obesity risks from 1998 to 2007 in the United States. It was noted that the association varied across gender and urbanicity. This study has significant implications in the fight against the obesity epidemic for future urban design and community-based interventions.