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

IntroductionMental disorders are a major cause of morbidity and disability in the worldand 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 (I) on mental health of Bu-Ali Sina University students, Hamadan.MethodologyIn 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 0.05.ResultsThe findings showed that the average pretest score of students` mental health was 21.86 ± 8.96 and the average post-test score was 22.55 ± 10.83. 40.7 percent of participants were suspected to have mental disorders before participation in physical education classes (score above 23) and decreased to 37% after the end of the semester, the dependent t-test results showed no significant difference between students` 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