Résumé
Depression is a mood disorder that is considered as a world epidemic problem. The prevalence of depression among women is twice of men. It accompanies some complications such as immobility and obesity. Literature shows women are at greater risk of obesity and consequent depression which both contribute in worsening women's physical, emotional and health problems. Physical activities are ways to reduce depression. Conducing the present study which aimed to determine effect of physical activity on depression in obese women in Iran is therefore necessary. A quasi-experimental study was conducted. 222 depressed and obese women, referred to healthcare centers located in zone 17 of Tehran for their healthcare issues were recruited to the study. They were randomly allocated to two groups of intervention and control after being diagnosed by Beck standard questionnaire. Intervention group had physical activities as study intervention. The effects of physical activities were assessed before and after the intervention in both groups. All statistics were computed by the SPSS software, using Pearson, Chi-square, Kolmogrov - Smirnov and Mann Whitney tests. The study demonstrated that after exercise, 70.1% of samples had reached to normal level. Depression level of obese women in intervention and control groups were found to be significantly different [P=0.001, NNT=2]. The study showed that doing exercise was effective in reducing the level of depression in women and the number of women in need of treatment and prevention of bad outcome was two persons. So the study recommends including excersice to daily plans of Iranian women. This is a key point for adding exercise program to Iranian women daily activity living. All organization who have health affairs need to consider the correlation between life style and mental health as part of mental health plans for the society in order to present the complication of depression