Pediatric and adulthood obesity is a global health concern. Obesity during childhood and adolescence is likely to be carried into adulthood along with a range of associated comorbidity. Therefore, prevention of obesity at earlier stage of life may reduce the global burden of health cares and obesity-induced disease managements. Implementation of evidence-based obesity interventions and programs, intramural or extramural, in real world school settings may be a viable option for such prevention. Not only heightening educations on nutrition, behaviors, and physical activities but also fostering participatory activities may serve that purpose. However, tailoring school-based obesity prevention programming to address personal and environmental factors, in addition to basic knowledge and skills, is challenging. Besides, methodological issues concerning design, conduct, and analysis of school-based trials should also be properly taken into account.

We invite investigators and scholars to contribute original research as well as review articles to the upcoming special issue (PubMed indexed) that will serve as an open forum to exchange, summarize, and disseminate ideas and products from broad or specific aspects of school-based trials. The school settings range from pre-K to college, during and/or after school hours, and summer or winter recession settings will also be considered. Also articles addressing student-, home-, school-, or community-level facilitators or barriers to implementing interventions are welcomed.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Updated systematic reviews of school-based trials addressing weight issues
• Strategies to incorporate contextual home and community factors into designing and conducting school-based trials in real world settings
• Development, reliability, and validity of instruments or toolkits pertinent to assessing school-based trials outcomes and process measures
• Qualitative or quantitative assessment of school-based trial outcomes
• Effectiveness assessment of modifications of home, school, or community environments
• Logistical challenges and lessons learned from conducting school-based trials
• Innovative utilization of social media apps for addressing common internal or external barriers to participating in school-based trials