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The objective of this paper is to assess the effect of the socio‐economic status (SES) on long‐term outcomes of a family‐based obesity treatment intervention in prepubertal children. A total of 52 overweight and 26 normal weight children were investigated. Nutritional status, intake of fruit, vegetables and low fat foods, in‐between meals, sports club membership, frequency of exercise and daily television viewing were measured before intervention (t₀ and after a mean period of 1.3 years (t₁. The result obtained indicate that a low SES may serve as a barrier against family‐based intervention. The data provide evidence for the idea that there is need for social stratification of future measures of health promotion within families.

The study reports on a small‐scale survey of teenagers’ preferences for a selection of pre‐prepared foods sold by the school cash cafeteria, nutritional knowledge towards fat, attitudes to nutritional labelling of school food and their intended change in eating behaviour prompted by nutritional labelling. Results suggest that the provision of simple nutritional labelling information on school meals in cash cafeterias in secondary schools could have a positive influence on children’s choices of fat in school food and be a valuable educational resource to help in the long‐term aim of reducing fat consumption for the whole UK population.