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Background: Obesity is a complex, multifactorial disease with rising global prevalence. Considering its significant association with lower socioeconomic status, implementing obesity prevention programs in vulnerable school-age children is particularly pertinent. This cluster-randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a health promotion program on overweight in vulnerable children from primary schools. Methods: The BeE-school study involved 735 children (51.7% boys, average age 7.7 (1.2) years old) from 10 primary schools in the Northern region of Portugal, identified as Educational Territories for Priority Intervention. After the initial assessment, the schools were randomized into two groups: one receiving the intervention (4 schools, n= 353) and the other not (6 schools, n= 382). The intervention included education and training teachers for 16 weeks, their implementation in the classroom, and giving families challenges every two weeks during this length of time. The program’s effectiveness was assessed short-term, immediately post-intervention (for 95.5% of participants) and long-term, one year after (for 50.8%). We considered the difference in BMI z-scores (BMIz), waist-to-height ratio and waist-to-weight ratio, from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up assessment. Results: In post-intervention, intervened children presented a significant reduction in all the three measures of adiposity: BMIz (B= −0.098, 95% CI: −0.156 to −0.040, p= 0.001), waist-to-height ratio (B = −0.007, 95% CI: −0.010 to −0.003, p< 0.001) and waist-to-weight ratio (B= −0.121, 95% CI: −0.193 to −0.048, p= 0.001). One year after the intervention ended the decrease in BMIz remained significant (B= −0.114, 95% CI: −0.213 to −0.015, p= 0.023). Conclusion: Conclusion: The school-based intervention, focusing on teacher training in health promotion and involving families, proved to be effective in improving body composition in socially vulnerable children.

Health literacy is an important skill to deal with information and positively influences individual and community health. Information concerning health is available from a plethora of online resources. The concept of digital health literacy has gained prominence with the pandemic. The absence of valid tools to analyse digital literacy levels are scant. This study aims to translate, adapt and validate the Portuguese version of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI) as used in the global COVID‐HL Network. Participants were mostly students from social sciences, psychology, education and health sciences. The Portuguese version of the DHLI contained five dimensions each consisting of three items. An online survey with university students (n = 1815, 75.1% female, average age: 24.15 years) was administered to test the validity of the Portuguese version of the DHLI. Data were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Pearson correlations were also studied. Two items revealed symmetry and kurtosis problems. We chose to eliminate them from the analysis. Different exploratory factor analysis attempts were made, obtaining two possible models to be tested in the confirmatory factor analysis: a three‐factor model and a four‐factor model. A four‐factor structure of the instrument (information searching, adding self‐generated content, evaluating reliability, determining relevance) was supported by confirmatory factor analysis and had good internal consistency. The Portuguese version of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument met adequate psychometric criteria. Therefore, it can be confidently used in Portuguese students' assessment of digital health literacy. Representative studies are needed to shed light on different target groups and their COVID‐19–related DHLI.