The effectiveness of station designed sport programs on mental health of midwives: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background and Objective: In this century, 25 percent of people are with diagnosable mental disorders and approximately 450 million people worldwide are suffering from some forms of mental disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of designed sport programs on mental health of midwives.

Materials and Methods: In this RCT, health care centers no. 1 and no. 3 were randomly selected and each center were randomly assigned to two groups of intervention and control. Then, 60 employed midwives who were working in these centers were selected by purposeful sampling. Participants filled up General Health Questionnaire 28, before and after the study and Bruce test was taken by techno gym treadmill in order to determine maximal oxygen uptake. The intervention group performed 45-minute sport training program three times a week, within 8 weeks. Data were analyzed with SPSS 19 software using independent student t test, paired sample t-test, Mann-Whitney u, Chi squared and two-way ANOVA tests. Meanwhile, p < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Sport training had a significant effect on mental health total score (p=0.002), subscales of anxiety and insomnia (p=0.008), physical complaints (p=0.008) and social dysfunction (p=0.011). However sport training has no significant effect on subscale of depression (p=0.318).

Conclusion: Designed sport training promotes mental health of midwives by reducing anxiety and insomnia, physical complaints and social dysfunction.