Municipal health promotion programs: is childhood obesity a concern at local level in Portugal?

Health promotion programs at local level are increasingly used worldwide, specifically targeted at tackling childhood obesity. Thus, local governments (municipalities) become key public health promoters and play an important role in the prevention of obesity in children. We identified health-enhancing programs promoted by Portuguese municipalities in which children could participate. The 77 identified programs were promoted by 30 of the 308 Portuguese municipalities and only 11 programs addressed childhood obesity. It appears that a large number of Portuguese municipalities disregard their potential as public health promoters. Despite the clear governmental concern about childhood obesity at national level, the same does not emerge locally. Municipalities' are responsible for ensuring the population's quality of life, namely through multisectoral actions, which is particularly relevant in the prevention of childhood obesity. Therefore, all municipalities should include childhood obesity prevention in their concerns.