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Background: Scalable interventions that improve the nutritional quality of foods in children's lunchboxes have considerable potential to improve child public health nutrition. This study assessed the potential efficacy, feasibility and acceptability of an m-health intervention, 'SWAP IT', to improve the energy and nutritional quality of foods packed in children's lunchboxes. Methods: The study employed a 2X2 factorial cluster randomized-controlled trial design. Twelve primary schools in New South Wales, Australia were randomly allocated to one of four groups: (i) no intervention;(ii) physical activity intervention only;(iii) lunchbox intervention only; or(iv) physical activity and lunchbox intervention combined. The two intervention strategies were evaluated separately. This paper focuses on the effects of the lunchbox intervention only. The lunchbox intervention comprised four strategies: 1) school nutrition guidelines; 2) lunchbox lessons; 3) information pushed to parents via a school-communication app and 4) parent resources addressing barriers to packing healthy lunchboxes. Outcome measures were taken at baseline and immediately post-intervention (10 weeks) and included measures of effectiveness (mean energy (kJ) packed in lunchboxes, total energy and percentage energy from recommended foods consistent with Australian Dietary Guidelines), feasibility (of delivering intervention to schools, parent app engagement and behaviour change) and acceptability to school staff and parents. Linear mixed models were used to assess intervention efficacy. Results: Of the 1915 lunchbox observations, at follow-up there was no significant differences between intervention and control group in mean energy of foods packed within lunchboxes (− 118.39 kJ, CI = -307.08, 70.30, p = 0.22). There was a significant increase favouring the intervention in the secondary outcome of mean lunchbox energy from recommended foods (79.21 kJ, CI = 1.99, 156.43, p = 0.04), and a non-significant increase in percentage of lunchbox energy from recommended foods in intervention schools (4.57%, CI = -0.52, 9.66, p = 0.08). The views of the messages pushed via the app ranged from 387 to 1550 views per week (mean views =1025 per week). A large proportion (71%) of parents reported awareness of the intervention, making healthier swaps in the lunchbox (55%), and pushed content was helpful (84%). Conclusion: The study is the first RCT to assess the potential of a multi-component m-health lunchbox intervention. The intervention was feasible, acceptable and potentially effective in improving the nutritional quality of foods packed within children's lunchboxes. Trial registration: Australian Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN: ACTRN12616001228471. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the benefits of physical activity, there is minimal research focusing on factors that influence real-world school-based physical activity programs. Kilometre (KM) Club is an Australian grassroots program which aims to increase physical activity in students through the completion of an outside walk or run at school. This small-scale pilot evaluation aimed to examine families, teachers and principals' perceptions of the benefits, enablers and barriers of KM Club. It also aimed to examine the effects of KM Club on student's physical activity levels during the school day., Methods: Four regional New South Wales (NSW) primary schools participated in this study. 26 families, four teachers, and two principals from School A, C, B and D completed semi-structured interviews to understand their perceptions of KM Club. 21 students completed emotional state-scales to understand their emotions when participating in KM Club. 141 students from Schools B, C and D participated in step-count measures using accelerometers., Results: Families, teachers and principals reported a range of benefits such as improved social connectedness, wellbeing, home and classroom behaviours, participation in sport and fitness levels. Enablers consisted of champion engagement, incentives, versatile facilities and integration with other school activities. Identified barriers included the weather and environment, program timing and health issues. Most students reported that participating in KM Club made them feel proud, confident and fantastic. School B reported a significant increase in students' daily step counts on KM Club days compared to non-KM Club days (+ 15%; p = 0.001), while School C reported no significant changes (-5%; p = 0.26). School D reported a significant increase in the number of daily steps taken by KM Club participants compared with non-KM club participants (+ 10%; p = 0.024)., Conclusion: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to implementing school-based physical activity initiatives. However, it appears that flexible and adaptable factors are important to the successful implementation of school-based programs, such as KM Club. This study revealed a variety of self-reported health, wellbeing and educational benefits for students, as well as an increase in student's physical activity levels at 2 of the 3 schools participating in the quantitative data collection. This pilot evaluation may help to inform future design, implementation and scale-up of KM Club and school-based health promotion programs, potentially improving child health, wellbeing and educational outcomes., Trial Registration: (LNR223 - LNR/19/NCC/45)., (© 2023. Crown.)