Abstract

Effect of University physical education courses on students' psychological indices Studies show significant prevalence of mental health among Iranian population. Based on national study in Iranian population the prevalence of mental disorder is 21 percent. Accordingly, the prevalence of depression and anxiety is more than physical impairment and social dysfunction symptoms (Noorbala et al., 2011(. Many of these disorders affect active community and impair efficacy and quality of life. Based on reports, mental illness is raising among university students. Today, students refer to counseling center more than past. Also, they have more complex problems (mohammazadeh et al., 2013). For example, in a study at Iran University Of Medical Sciences, Shariatie and collegues demonstrated that the prevalence of mental disorder is 42.6 percent (shariatie et al., 2003). Thus, various strategies have used to prevent mental disorders in students. In this regard, physical activities are considered as essential part of remedial and rehablitation conditions (shojaedin et al., 2013). General physical activity courses give an opportunity for students to be active forcefully, atleast for two semesters. However, there isn't any report about the effect of university physical education courses on mental health. Therefore, the present study investigate students mental health and examines the role of sports skills training in students' mental health. It is clear that, results can be benefecial in students' mental health enhancement program, prevevting mental difficulties and increament their efficacy. Methods Present study designed empirically using pretest and posttest with control group. Subjects were 593 male students of university of Zanjan. They assigned to experimental (basketball, volleyball, and physical fitness) or control (sedentary) groups. Students' leisure time exercise was controlled by Godin questionnaire (Rahmani et al., 2010). Also, students initial mental status were measured by mental health history that maintain in university counseling center. At the end of training period, GHQ-28 questionaries' was administered. This scale has 4 subscales including: physical symptoms, anxiety, depression, and social dysfunction. Acceptable validity and reliability is reported for this scale. Cronbach's alpha in present study was 0.929 for whole questionnaire, and 0.833, 0.669, 0.907 for subscales, respectively. Results Students mean age was 21.64 years old. Risk of mental disorder increased by increment in age (p=0.018). The type of physical education interference had significant effect on mental health based on ANOVA analysis (F4,679= 5.998, p=0.000). Post hoc test showed that students in basketball group had better mental health (M= 19.48, SD=10.11). We didn’t observe significant effect of volleyball and physical fitness. Thus, instruction and training basketball has positive effect on mental health. Despite of the effect basketball, its effects on subscales were not equal. There was positive and significant effect of basketball only on physical complaint (F4,734= 7.62, p=0.000) and anxiety (F4,716= 10.53, p=0.000) subscales. However, no significant effects were observed on social function and depression subscales.  Discussion We found that participation in basketball course may decrease anxiety and physical complaint. Wiles et al (2007) demonstrated that heavy intensity activity is associated with a small reduction in common mental disorder over 5 years (Wiles et al., 2007). On the other hand, decrement of neurotransmitters such as: serotonin, epinephrine, and dopamine have mentioned as a cause of depression. Also, participation in exercise training can release endorphin, a hedonic factor (Foly et al, 2008). Other studies demonstrated that endorphins decrease anxiety too (Dishman & Connor, 2009). In our study, basketball course had no effect on social dysfunction and depression. Studies have demonstrated that change in social and physical functions needs longer time and exercise one session per week probably is not sufficient to achieving this aim. This result is consistent with Zarghmi et al. study (Zarghami et al., 2010). Accordingly, American college of sport medicine, recommend exercise at least 3 to 5 day per week. In conclusion, it seems that programming instruction and playing basketball in physical education courses can induce positive effects on mental health. Finally, we recommend that basketball training should be considered in university physical education courses.