School-based obesity treatment and prevention programs: all in all, just another brick in the wall?

Abstract

In this issue of the <i>International Journal of Obesity</i>, Katz <i>et al</i>. report on a meta-analysis of school-based interventions (SBIs) for lessening overweight and obesity in children. A hard look at SBIs is certainly warranted and we applaud Katz <i>et al</i>. for undertaking the task. SBIs have been and remain among the most advocated of anti-obesity approaches and, at least as research projects, they have tended to be large expensive projects. Not surprisingly, evidence of the efficacy/ effectiveness of these SBIs has been variable, presumably as a result of the heterogeneity of approaches.