Purpose: Over the last couple of decades, health has become a central part of the subject content in physical education (PE) curricula in many countries. As a result, issues of health have been foregrounded much more clearly in the teaching of PE. The aim of this study was to explore how Swedish PE teachers make sense of health in relation to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals with overweight and obesity living in the UK respond to the public health and media messaging surrounding COVID-19 and obesity. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative interview study with a think aloud protocol. A total of 10 participants self-reported to have overweight, obesity…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine how transtheoretical model (TTM) constructions change through nutrition education for fat intake modification among overweight and obese women living in Shazand city, Iran. Design/methodology/approach: A semi-experimental design with intervention and control groups (50 women in each group) was…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which children and young people are being positioned as change agents for families through school health promotion initiatives in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach: The paper maps and describes the kinds of policies and initiatives that directly or indirectly regard children as…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the psychological constructs volition and motivation influence successful and unsuccessful weight maintainers' experiences during the difficult period following an intensive lifestyle intervention. Design/methodology/approach: Post lifestyle intervention semi-structured interviews with 11…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an online "teachable moment" intervention to promote healthy eating for overweight and food intolerance symptoms. Design/methodology/approach: The study involves a 2×2 factorial design with two conditions: group (weight loss vs food intolerance) and condition (intervention vs control).…

Purpose: To treat childhood obesity, health education interventions are often aimed at the whole family. However, such interventions seem to have a relatively limited effect on weight loss. The purpose of this paper is to examine how families enrolled in a family-based health education intervention manage the intervention in their daily lives and…

Purpose: Evidence indicates that active school travel (AST) including walking can effectively lower levels of obesity among school-age children. Yet Queensland has been identified as one of the most inactive states in Australia where only 5 per cent of Years 1 and 5 children engaged in AST on a daily basis. The purpose of this paper is to explain…

Purpose: Schools are an important setting for a wide variety of activities to promote health. The purpose of this paper is to map the different types of health promotion programmes and activities in schools, to estimate the amount of published evaluations of health promotion within UK schools, and to identify any provisional "candidate…

Purpose: Availability and access to food is a determinant of obesity. The purpose of this paper is to examine food availability within and outside of post-primary schools in Ireland. Design/methodology/approach: Data on the internal school food environment were collected from 63 post-primary schools using questionnaires. The external school food…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct an in-depth quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a family-based weight loss and healthy life style programme for clinically obese children in England. Design/methodology/approach: The mixed method case study evaluation used included obtaining pre and post measurements of anthropometry and a…

Purpose: With the aim of contributing to the evidence base on school-based health promotion, the authors discuss the outcomes and processes of a European intervention project aiming to prevent obesity among children (4-16 years) and promote their health and well-being, titled "Shape Up: a school-community approach to influencing determinants…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a summary of current policy and research related to pre-school overweight and obesity, and to provide a rationale for why early years settings are being placed at the forefront of strategies to address the problem. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a narrative review of current research, policy…

Purpose: Social marketing is increasingly being seen as a potentially effective means of pursuing health education practice generally and within various specific areas such as mental health and wellbeing and more broadly in tackling health inequalities. This paper aims to report and reflect on the authors' experiences of undertaking a health…

Purpose: Schools are thought to represent a growing marketing opportunity for food advertisers in many countries. Marketing of unhealthy food to children is linked to the increased prevalence of obesity worldwide. This paper aims to explore ways in which schools respond to commercial activity around food marketing. Design/methodology/approach: A…