Paper Details

The effect of 10-week aerobic exercises on mental health of middle-aged non-athlete universities’ female staff

Mahvash Noorbakhsh, Eidy Alijani

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/5.10.177-182

Int. J. Biosci. 5(10), 177-182. November, 2014. (PDF)

Abstract:

Several reports indicate that physical activity can improve mental health of people. Sound mental health of university staff is very important because they involve in training of future maker experts in each and every country in the world. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 10-weekaerobic exercises on mental health of middle-aged non-athlete universities’ female staff. Statistical population of this study include all universities’ female staff (N=181). 60 subjects were randomly selected and randomly divided into experimental (n=30) and control (30) groups. General health questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used to evaluate the general health and its sub-scales (somatic symptoms, anxiety, depression, social dysfunction). Pre-test was carried out and then experimental group participated in an aerobic exercise program for 10- weeks, 3 sessions per week, and each session 60 minutes. After post-test, data were analyzed by independent and dependent t-test using SPSS at significant level of p≤0.05. Results showed that there were significant differences between experimental and control group (p<0.01) regarding general mental health. Findings also indicated that significant differences were observed in somatic symptoms (p<0.01), depression (p<0.05) and anxiety symptoms (p<0.01) between experimental and control group. It could overally be concluded that aerobic exercises improve general mental health by reducing somatic and anxiety symptoms and depression. Therefore, all forms of physical activity especially aerobic exercises are recommended to promote general mental health and its components.