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To identify useful components of interventions aimed at prevention of childhood obesity and related non‐communicable diseases (NCDs), which included physical activity and which targeted any or all of four life‐course stages: peri‐conception; pregnancy; infancy and toddlerhood (0 to 23 months); and early childhood (24 to 59 months). In May 2016, WHO Geneva searched the Cochrane Library and PubMed for systematic reviews of interventions including physical activity to prevent childhood obesity or risk factors for obesity‐related NCDs. Using a narrative synthesis, the efficacy of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to alter energy balance outcomes (measures of weight status or body fatness) was characterized by life‐course stage, study characteristics, intervention functions (as defined in the behaviour change wheel), and level of the socio‐ecological model (SEM) targeted. The quality of included systematic …