Background: This umbrella review aimed to summarise the evidence presented in systematic reviews and meta-analyses regarding the effect of physical activity on academic achievement of school-age children and adolescents. Methods: A comprehensive electronic search for relevant systematic reviews and meta-analyses were performed in Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, and Latin American and Caribbean of Health Sciences Information System, and reference lists of the included studies, from inception to May 2020. Studies were included if they were systematic reviews or meta-analyses, included school-age children or adolescents, the intervention included physical activity, and the outcome was the academic achievement. Two independent authors screened the text of potentially eligible studies and assessed the methodological quality of the studies using the AMSTAR 2 tool. Results: Forty-one systematic reviews and meta-analyses that examined the effects of physical activity on children and adolescents’ academic achievement were identified. Overall, the systematic reviews reported small positive or mixed associations between physical activity and academic achievement. From meta-analyses, it was observed that physical activity had null or small-to-medium positive effects on academic achievement. Chronic physical activity showed a medium positive effect on academic achievement, and acute physical activity did not demonstrate benefits. Conclusions: Physical activity seems not to be detrimental to school-age children and adolescents’ academic achievement, and may, in fact, be beneficial.

Summary: Childhood overweight and obesity have significant short‐ and long‐term negative impacts on children's health and well‐being. These challenges are unequally distributed according to socioeconomic status (SES); however, previous studies have often lacked standardized and objectively measured data across national contexts to assess these differences. This study provides a cross‐sectional picture of the association between SES and childhood overweight and obesity, based on data from 123,487 children aged 6–9 years in 24 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European region. Overall, associations were found between overweight/obesity and the three SES indicators used (parental education, parental employment status, and family‐perceived wealth). Our results showed an inverse relationship between the prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity and parental education in high‐income countries, whereas the opposite relationship was observed in most of the middle‐income countries. The same applied to family‐perceived wealth, although parental employment status appeared to be less associated with overweight and obesity or not associated at all. This paper highlights the need for close attention to context when designing interventions, as the association between SES and childhood overweight and obesity varies by country economic development. Population‐based interventions have an important role to play, but policies that target specific SES groups are also needed to address inequalities.

Summary: Childhood obesity is a serious global health problem. Waist circumference (WC) and waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR) reflect body fat distribution in children. The objectives of this study were to assess WC and WHtR in 7‐year‐old children and to determine body mass index (BMI), WC, and WHtR differences in children from 10 selected countries across Europe (Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Norway, Spain, and Sweden) participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). The 50th and 90th percentile of WC (according to COSI and “Identification and prevention of Dietary‐ and lifestyle‐induced health EFfects In Children and infantS” (IDEFICS) cutoff values) and WHtR above 0.5 were used as measures of abdominal obesity in a unique sample of 38,975 children aged 7.00–7.99 years. Southern European countries, including Greece and Spain, showed significantly higher BMI, WC, and WHtRin both genders (p < 0.0001) than Eastern and Northern Europe. The highest values for WC were observed in Greece (60.8 ± 7.36 cm boys; 60.3 ± 7.48 cm girls), North Macedonia (60.4 ± 7.91 cm boys; 59.0 ± 8.01 cm girls), and Spain (59.7 ± 6.96 cm boys; 58.9 ± 6.77 cm girls). WC and WHtRin may add an information about the occurrence of central obesity in children.

Purpose: This paper qualitatively explores arguments in the UK meat tax debate, including how they align with values from specific political ideologies and perspectives on sustainable food security.Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a scoping media analysis of articles published over 1 year in six leading UK newspapers, followed by semi-structured interviews with ten key stakeholders in late 2019. The authors identified categories of arguments, distilled the core conflicts and analysed how arguments reflected different ideas about human nature, the role of the state and solutions to food system challenges.Findings: Arguments were categorised into five major topics: climate change and environment; human health; effects on animals; fairness; and acceptability of government intervention. Pro-meat tax arguments often aligned with modern liberal ideology, and sometimes echoed demand restraint or food system transformation perspectives on sustainable food security. Arguments against meat taxes were more likely to align with the efficiency perspective or classical liberal ideology.Originality/value: To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first interpretive analyses of this controversial suggested policy. Despite having similarities with other debates around taxation – particularly taxes on sugar sweetened beverages – the meat tax debate contains unique complexities due to the prominence of environmental arguments, and differing values pertaining to animal welfare and rights. This study highlights the need for policy research exploring values, in addition to quantitative evidence.

Background: Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases. However, recent and systematically obtained national-level data to guide policy responses are often lacking, especially in countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This article describes physical inactivity patterns among adults in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Methods: Data were collected using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire drawing nationally representative samples of adults in each country. The national prevalence of physical inactivity was calculated as well as the proportional contribution to total physical activity (PA) during work, transport and leisure-time. An adjusted logistic regression model was applied to analyze the association of age, gender, education, household status and income with physical inactivity. Results: National prevalence of physical inactivity ranged from 10.1% to 43.6%. The highest proportion of PA was registered during work or in the household in most countries, whereas the lowest was during leisure-time in all countries. Physical inactivity was more likely with older age in eight countries, with female gender in three countries, and with living alone in three countries. There was no clear pattern of association with education and income. Conclusion: Prevalence of physical inactivity is heterogeneous across the region. PA during leisure-time contributes minimally to total PA in all countries. Policies and programs that increase opportunities for active travel and leisure-time PA, especially for older adults, women and people living alone will be an essential part of strategies to increase overall population PA.

There is ongoing contestation around greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant livestock and how society should respond. Media discourses play a key role in agenda setting for the general public and policymakers, and may contribute to polarisation. This paper examines how UK news media portrayed ruminant livestock’s impact on climate change between 2016 and 2021. The analysis addresses a gap in the literature by comparing discourses in national and farming sector newspapers using a qualitative approach. Four national and two farming sector news outlets were searched for articles published between 2016 and 2021. A corpus of 996 relevant articles was assembled, from which 154 were selected for in-depth examination using Critical Discourse Analysis. Four ‘Critical Discourse Moments’ (CDMs), each signifying a discursive shift in the debate, were identified over the 6-year studied period: 1) Low salience, diverging discourses, 2) We must eat far less meat, 3) Fighting the anti-meat agenda, and 4) Policy (in)action at COP26. There was a large increase in the number of published articles from January 2019 onward, partly associated with publication of the EAT/Lancet Commission report. CDM 2 (We must eat far less meat) occurred mainly in the national media, while CDM 3 (Fighting the anti-meat agenda) occurred mainly in the farming media. Our findings reveal both opinion polarisation and intergroup polarisation between national and farming sector media, and low engagement with food system power imbalances. Addressing polarisation will be important to enhance capacity for collective decision-making regarding methane emissions from ruminant livestock.