title: Pilot intervention to increase physical activity among sedentary urban middle school girls: a two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design.
abstract: The primary purpose of the study was to determine whether girls in one school receiving nurse counseling plus an after-school physical activity club showed greater improvement in physical activity, cardiovascular fitness, and body composition than girls assigned to an attention control condition in another school (N = 69). Linear regressions controlling for baseline measures showed no statistically significant group differences, but the directionality of differences was consistent with greater intervention group improvement for minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity/hour (t = 0.95, p = .35), cardiovascular fitness (t = 1.26, p = .22), body mass index (BMI; t = -1.47, p = .15), BMI z score (t = -1.19, p = .24), BMI percentile (t = -0.59, p = .56), percentage body fat (t = -0.86, p = .39), and waist circumference (t = -0.19, p = .85). Findings support testing with a larger sample.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University College of Nursing, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. robbin76@msu.edu
authors.forename: Lorraine B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Karin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
authors.forename: Kimberly S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.forename: Yun-Jia
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Stacey M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wesolek Ladrig
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012573:School Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*