A four week school based health intervention.

Schools act as favourable environments to complete physical activity and health interventions in because it is compulsory to attend and the intervention will reach many students. Females are shown to disengage with physical activity earlier than males and therefore their MVPA engagement decreases with age. With the prevalence of obesity increasing in adolescents there is a heightened need for physical activity interventions to re-engage female adolescents. This study aimed to introduce alternative forms of physical activity and increase participant’s knowledge in health through a 4 week intervention programme. The present study took place over 6 weeks at a southern secondary school whereby 2 female classes were split into intervention and non-intervention groups. Of the 43 students, 21 were placed in the intervention group and the results showed a significant difference between the intervention and non-intervention group in cardiovascular endurance (F(1,40)=6.60, p=0.014), muscular endurance (t(41)=-2.249, p < 0.05), body mass (t(41)=-2.121, p < 0.05), BMI (t(41)=-2.121, p < 0.05) and fat percentage (t(41)=-2.329, p < 0.05) amongst many other findings. Additionally a significant increase in knowledge of hydration was shown by the intervention group (F(1,39)= 3.979, p=0.053). The implementation of a physical activity and health intervention should be considered for many schools due to the positive results shown within this study. Key words: intervention, health, physical activity, females, school, adolescents