Association between physical activity and mental health among high-school adolescents in Boushehr province: A population based study

OBJECTIVE: Mental health is one of the evaluating factors of community indicators, and physical activity is considered an important tool for the importance of public health. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between physical activity and mental health, but these studies did not include those populations in which training children have some traditional and religious aspects. METHODS: Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to compare the prevalence of mental health among those who had inactive, minimally and HEPA activity in a representative sample of adolescents aged 15–19 in South of Iran using data from the Mental Health Survey (n=2584). The GHQ-28 and IPAQ-short forms were used to evaluate the mental health and physical activity, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 2584 adolescents (1401 male and 1178 female) participated in the study. The observed odds of psychological symptoms in boys compared to girls is 1.2 times (p=0.018). We observed that HEPA-activity decreases odds of somatic distress and social dysfunction compared with inactivity (p=0.031 and 0.001, respectively); minimally activity decreases odds of anxiety compared with inactivity (p=0.038); but physical activity rate was not affected on odds of adolescent's depression (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Physical activity decreases mental health subscales except for depression among adolescents in Boushehr, southern city of Iran.