NEW MOVES: OBESITY PREVENTION AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. New Moves is an innovative school-based program for inactive high school girls who are overweight or at risk for becoming overweight due to low levels of physical activity. New Moves is an all girls alternative to regular high school physical education class. The program is offered during school hours and girls receive credit for participation. Throughout the fall semester, girls participate in physical activity four times a week and in discussions on nutrition and social support one time a week. In addition, the program includes individualized motivational interviewing and booster activities following the class such as "lunch bunches" and opportunities for physical activity. New Moves will be conducted in two waves with three intervention and three control schools in the 2007/2008 school year (approximately 220 girls) and with another six schools the following year (another 220 girls). Girls are recruited to participate the spring before the New Moves class is offered in the fall. Recruitment includes posters, flyers, and teacher¿s help to target girls who are inactive and uncomfortable in traditional co-ed physical education class. A screener survey is also used in recruitment to target girls who report low level of physical activity and preference is given to inactive girls who are greater than or equal to the 75th percentile of BMI for their age. The primary research hypothesis to be tested is that girls in the intervention condition will significantly decrease their percent body fat as compared to girls in the control condition. Girls will undergo three assessments; a baseline assessment after they are enrolled in New Moves in the spring before the intervention begins, one in the winter after the class is over and a follow-up assessment in the spring when the booster activities are complete. The GCRC will have a role in baseline and follow up evaluation of all 440 girls. Approximately ten girls will come to the GCRC during each visit and the visits will last approximately three hours. During the visits, GCRC staff will administer urine pregnancy tests and DEXA scans. Prior to having the DEXA scan, girls will take a pregnancy test. Girls who refuse the test or who are pregnant will not have a DEXA scan. During the GCRC visit, additional measures will be conducted by New Moves staff including a physical activity survey, a 24-hour dietary recall, a psychosocial survey and a measurement of body fat using a Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer.