Throughout the world, the incidence of adults and children who are overweight or obese is increasing at a near epidemic rate. Childhood obesity bears implications on health over the short, medium and long term life of these children; therefore, the prevention of childhood obesity has become a world health necessity. Nonetheless, there are few existing studies which prove to be effective in the prevention and control of obesity over the long term. The objective of this first section is to review the effectiveness of programs for the prevention and control of childhood obesity by analysing research articles. A bibliography will be included in the second section.