Table 1.
Eligibility criteria for the systematic review.
| Included Studies | Excluded Studies | |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Generally healthy, typically developing children and adolescents ages 2–18 years residing in African countries | Studies targeting children and adolescents with specific disease or condition, including asthma, diabetes, and obesity |
| Normal or mixed weight populations | African populations residing outside of Africa | |
| Intervention | Any behavioural (including but not limited to) physical activity- or diet-related interventions aimed at preventing overweight and obesity (even if not explicitly stated) among children in any context (home, community, school, etc.) | Obesity treatment interventions, malnutrition prevention interventions targeting undernutrition, non-behavioural interventions |
| Study design | Primary research question: Randomised or non-randomised controlled trials (cluster or individual), controlled pre-post studies, prospective cohort studies with a control group, interrupted time series and repeated measure studies, quasi-experimental studies and natural experiments | Cross-sectional studies, non-experimental studies, non-human studies, laboratory-based studies |
| Sub-questions: Any design, including qualitative studies, as long as they are describing the same studies as those selected for answering the primary research question of the review | N/A | |
| Outcomes | Primary outcomes: Adiposity-related outcomes, including prevalence of overweight and obesity, and body composition. Intermediate behavioural outcomes such as changes in physical activity and fitness, sedentary behaviour, and dietary behaviour | Other health outcomes, such as blood pressure, if not reporting about relevant adiposity outcomes |
| For behavioural outcomes, both objective and subjective measures of physical activity, dietary behaviour, or other relevant behaviours, such as sedentary behaviour, are acceptable | Other outcomes of behavioural interventions, such as cognitive development, if not reporting about relevant behavioural outcomes (increased physical activity, fitness, sedentary behaviour, or dietary behaviour) | |
| Secondary outcomes from sibling article search: Barriers and facilitators to implementation of childhood obesity prevention interventions | N/A | |
| Publication type | Peer-reviewed journal articles | Conference abstract, working paper, study protocol, report, dissertation, book, website |
| Publication year | 1990 onward | Before 1990 |
| Setting | Any African country according to the World Bank’s regional definitions of Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa [44,45] | Countries in any other regions |
| Language | Any language | N/A |