title: Bristol girls dance project (BGDP): protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial of an after-school dance programme to increase physical activity among 11-12 year old girls.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many children do not meet current UK physical activity (PA) guidelines. Girls are less active than boys throughout childhood, and the age-related decline in PA, particularly from early adolescence, is steeper for girls than for boys. Dance is the favourite form of PA among UK secondary school aged girls. Delivering dance sessions after school could make a significant contribution to girls' PA. Therefore, after-school dance sessions may be an appropriate and cost-effective activity through which adolescent girls' PA levels can be increased.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two-arm cluster randomised control trial and economic evaluation conducted in 18 secondary schools across the greater Bristol area. All Year 7 girls in participating schools will receive a 'taster' dance session and subsequently be invited to participate in the project. There is space for up to 33 girls to participate in each school. Schools will be randomly assigned in equal numbers to intervention or control arms after baseline data has been collected. The nine intervention schools will receive a 20 week after-school dance-based intervention, consisting of 40 × 75 minute sessions, delivered by external dance instructors. Control schools will not receive the dance intervention. All measures will be assessed at baseline (time 0), at the end of the intervention period (time 1) and six months after the intervention has ended (time 2). Our primary interest is to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention to affect the objectively-assessed (accelerometer) mean weekday minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) accumulated by Year 7 girls one year after the baseline measurement (time 2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper describes the protocol for the Bristol Girls Dance Project cluster randomized controlled trial and economic evaluation, which is attempting to increase MVPA among Year 7 girls in UK secondary schools.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ISRCTN52882523.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Russ.Jago@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jago
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sebire
authors.forename: Ashley R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Jane E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Emma L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Bird
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Blair
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003615:Dancing; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D012107:Research Design; D012574:Schools