Comparison of Mental Health between Athlete And Non-Athlete Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave. Mental health can affect daily living, relationships, and physical health. The purpose of this study was to systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that compared the mental health of athletic and non-athletic students.

 Articles were searched in Persian in the SID, Noormags, Civilica, Elmnet using the keywords “mental health”, “general health”, “athlete”, and “non- athlete” were used without any time limit until February 2017. Inclusion criteria included cross-sectional studies comparing athletes and non-athletes as well as studies using the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). The modified checklist by Downs et al. (1998) was used to assess the methodological quality of the selected studies. Articles were reviewed using the PRISMA checklist.

Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, finally 12 articles from 478 studies were comprehensively reviewed. According to the results of the study, the total number of athletes and non-athletes was 1252 and 1451, respectively. The results of meta-analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the mental health of athlete students and non-athlete [MD = -5.15, 95% CI (-3.34 to -6.96)] as well as there is a significant difference between athletic and non-athletic students in the following four subscales of mental health so that in all cases the athletes were better; physical symptoms [MD = -1.23, 95% CI (-0.70 to -1.75)], anxiety and sleep disorder [MD = -1.73, 95% CI (-1.24 to -2.21)], social dysfunction [MD = -1.50, 95% CI (-0.74 to -2.25)], and depression [MD = -1.43, 95% CI (-0.85 to -2)].

The results of this study showed that student-athletes had better general health than non-athletes. Therefore, exercise and physical activity can promote students' mental health.