• Courtney Barnes, Alix Hall, Nicole Nathan, Rachel Sutherland, Nicole McCarthy, Matthew Pettet, Alison Brown, and Luke Wolfenden.
• Hunter New England Population Health, Wallsend 2287, New South Wales, Australia; School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2308, New South Wales, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton 2305, New South Wales, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2308, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: Courtney.Barnes@health.nsw.gov.au.
• Prev Med. 2021 Dec 1; 153: 106822.

AbstractDespite the benefits of factorial designs in quantifying the relative benefits of different school-based approaches to prevent unhealthy weight gain among students, few have been undertaken. The aims of this 2 × 2 cluster randomized factorial trial was to evaluate the impact of a physical activity and nutrition intervention on child weight status and quality of life. Twelve primary schools in New South Wales, Australia randomly allocated to one of four groups: (i.) physical activity (150 min of planned in-school physical activity); (ii.) nutrition (a healthy school lunch-box); (iii.) combined physical activity and nutrition; or (iv.) control. Outcome data assessing child weight and quality of life were collected at baseline and 9-months post-baseline. Within Grades 4-6 in participating schools, 742 students participated in anthropometric measurements, including child body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, at baseline and follow-up. Findings indicated that students that received the nutrition intervention had higher odds of being classified in the BMI category of underweight/healthy weight (OR 1.64 95%CI 1.07, 2.50; p = 0.0220), while those who received the physical activity intervention reported a lower waist circumference (mean difference - 1.86 95%CI -3.55, -0.18; p = 0.030). There were no significant effects of the nutrition or physical activity intervention on child BMI scores or child quality of life, and no significant synergistic effects of the two interventions combined. Future research assessing the longer-term impact of both intervention strategies, alone and combined, is warranted to better understand their potential impact on child health. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN: ACTRN12616001228471.Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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