The Effects of Physical Education Course on Mental Health of Students in Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan-Iran

Introduction Mental disorders are a major cause of morbidity and disability in the world and can reduce the success and academic achievement. Experts believe that exercise can be used as a means to achieve favorable mental status. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of physical education course (1) on mental health of Bu-Ali Sina University students, Hamadan. Materials and Methods In this descriptive study, 108 students of Bu-Ali Sina University, were randomly selected as research sample. Data collection tool was the 28-item standard questionnaire of Mental Health of Goldberg (GHQ-28) with 0. 89 reliability. To determine the suspected cases of mental disorders, cutoff point 23 has been used. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (pair t-tests) at the significance level less than 0.05. Results The findings showed that the average pretest score of students’s mental health were (21.86 ± 8.96) and the average post-test scores were (22.55 ± 10.83). 40.7 percent of participants were suspected to have mental disorders before participation in physical education classes (scores above 23) and decreased to 37% after the end of the semester, the dependent t-test results showed no significant difference between students’s mental health before and after the general physical education (p > 0.05). The post-test results showed that depressive symptoms were significantly increased (p > 0.05; 2.81 ± 5.64). Conclusion The results showed that participation in general physical education classes had no significant effect on mental health; also the depression of students had increased. Thus, regarding the results of this study, in order to promote students’s mental health and increase physical education efficacy and, attention to this problem seems necessary.