Does Exercise Affect Mental Health? (Study Sample: Athlete and Non-Athlete)

Aim: Promoting health and ensuring health in the community is one of the important pillars of the development of societies and it seems that important factors play a role in promoting the mental health of the community. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of exercise on mental health. Methodology: This study was a causal-comparative research that has been conducted through field method. The statistical population of this study was all students in Tarbiat Modares University that its non-athlete population was 6032 and its athlete population was 298. 680 non-athlete students and 204 athlete students were selected as Morgan’s table. The instrument of this study was included General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). The collected data were analyzed by Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann-Whitney U test. Findings: The results showed that there was a significant difference between male and female athlete students and between female athlete and non-athlete students in social dysfunction subscale, so that female athlete students’ social function had a better position in both groups. On the other hand, the difference between non-athlete female and male students was not significant in any of the subscales, but the difference between male athlete and non-athlete students was significant in all subscale of mental health. Other results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between married and single students’ mental health (p <0.05), so that married students had higher mental health than single students in somatic symptoms, social dysfunction, and depression subscales. Conclusion: Therefore, the increasing of motivation should be considered through the culture building and the promotion of general knowledge about the benefits of physical activity.