Research Article
Relationship Between Physical Activity and Depression Among Iranian High School Students
Mozhghan Azami, Fathola Mohamadian and Ashraf Direkvand-Moghadam
Correspondence Address :
Ashraf Direkvand-Moghadam
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery
Ilam University of Medical Sciences
Iran
Tel: 0098-84322240404
Email: direkvand-a@medilam.ac.ir
Received on: April 19, 2017 , Accepted on: May 29, 2017 , Published on: June 05, 2017
Citation: Mozhghan Azami, Fathola Mohamadian, Ashraf Direkvand-Moghadam (2017). Relationship Between Physical Activity and Depression Among Iranian High School Students
Copyright: 2017 Ashraf Direkvand-Moghadam, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Abstract
Introduction: Today, the rapid technological developments and increasing urbanization lead to decreasing the physical activity.
Aim: The present study aims to investigate the relationship between physical activity and depression among Iranian high school students.
Method: In a cross-sectional method, we evaluated high school students in of Ilam (Iran) during the academic year 2016. Multistage cluster random sampling was used to select the participants. Data were collected by demographic, Beck's Depression Inventory and International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out with IBM SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics. A P-value was less than 0.05 was considered as significant level.
Results: Overall, 400 high school students were studied. Overall, 49.5% of study populations have normal mental health and others experience some grade of depression, without significant differences in both genders (p=0. 747). There was a significant relationship between physical activity and depression (P=0. 000, r = -0.265).
Conclusion: About half of study population experience some grade of depression. Regarding the relationship between decreasing the physical activity and increasing the risk of depression, must be given attention to increase physical activity, especially among adolescents and young people.
Keywords: Depression, Iranian adolescents, Physical activity