The effect of Pilates exercise on female ‎nursing student's self- esteem

although, Self-esteem can improve mental health, studies indicated that nursing students‎'Self-esteem level, especially‎ in female is not desirable. Exercise may be influenced on enhancing self-esteem. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of Pilates exercises on self-esteem of female nursing students. This randomized control trial(single blinded) study was performed on 62 female nursing students at medical sciences university of sabzevar 2014. After selecting participants via convenience method, they were divided randomly into an experimental (n= 32) and a control(n = 30) group. The experimental group did the Pilates exercise twice a week for 2 months while, the control group continued their daily activities. Then, self-esteem level assessed and abtained data was analyzed by means of SPSS software (version 18) using descriptive statistics, paired t-test and covariance test. before intervention, the average score of self-esteem in experimental‎ group was 90/09‏±‏‎ (‏‏8/20) and in control‎ group ‎was 92/80‏±‏‎‎‏)‏9/22),whereas at the end of intervention these scores for experimental and control groups was observed as observed as 100/34± (‏‏7/72) and ‎94/10‏±‏‎‎‏)‏9/22), respectively which this difference was significant statistically (p=0/002). in the present study, performance of pilates exercise was effective to improve female nursing student's self-esteem, therefore, there is suggested to use this as an attractive and harmless method for enhancing the students’ self-esteem level.