ReviewCurrent obesity reports2025
School-Provided Meals and the Prevention of Childhood Obesity: A Small part of a Very Important Story.
Review in Current obesity reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring Drivers of Children's Food Choices: A Multi-Source Process Evaluation of a School-Based Nutrition Education Program.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Tackling the social determinants of childhood obesity in the United States: policy brief and lessons for developed and emerging economies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Universal School Meal Policies and Perceived Stigma: Quantitative Evidence From Eight US States.The Journal of school health · 2026Article
- Impacts of Global School Feeding Programmes on Children's Health and Wellbeing Outcomes: A Scoping Review.BMJ open · 2025Article
- The Impact of Federal and State Laws on Cardiovascular Risk.Current cardiology reports · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purpose of reviewTo present the evidence base in support of high-income country investment in universal school-provided meals (SPMs) for the purposes of optimising child health and wellbeing, including obesity prevention. RECENT
findingsMany countries provide some form of SPMs. Models (universal, free; targeted; subsidised) vary globally, however optimal growth and development of children as a potential outcome is a consistent feature. SPMs can positively impact diet quality, household food and nutrition security and potentially weight status but is dependent on the model. Universal school meals offered as part of whole-of-school approaches appear to be most effective in optimising children's growth and development. Critical elements for successful SPMs include being underpinned by enforceable nutrition and sustainability standards, offered in ways that are stigma-free, being embedded within a whole-school approach and conceptualising SPMS as part of transformative food systems. Weight status is only one of many potential outcomes of SPMs. Implementing universal SPMs is a triple duty action that can address the global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition and climate change. Attention needs to be paid to the model of implementation and key principles for success.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.