Abstract

Prison officers in Brazil play a fundamental role in the functioning of prison institutions, as they deal directly with the country's prison population. However, there is a scarcity of studies addressing the mental health aspects of these professionals in their work environments. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of physical activity on the mental aspects of prison officers in Brazil. This is an integrative review in which searches were performed for articles between the years 2000 to 2020 indexed in the SciELO and PUBMED databases and academic google, with the descriptors in English from the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) and Portuguese found in the Science Descriptors of Health (DECS). Of the 75 articles found, only 4 (n = 561) met the eligibility criteria. It was observed from the studies found that the main causes of psychological distress of these professionals are related to insomnia, fatigue, constant psychological pressure, violence, frequent alcohol consumption, low mood and constant worry. However, most prison officers in Brazil also do not practice physical activities, which may be directly related to the prevalence of psychological distress in this public. In the literature, studies have shown that the improvement in mental health aspects is related to the level of physical activity, as it provides greater encouragement, improves self-esteem, reduces tension in work relationships, muscle fatigue and helps to control anxiety, as well as of depression. Physical activity is an efficient strategy to reduce psychological damage caused by the work environment of prison officers in Brazil.

Keywords: Physical Activity; Prison Officers; Mental Health; Quality of Life; Prison; Violence

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Citation

Citation: Raquel da Franca. “Effects of Physical Activity on the Mental Health of Prison Officers in Brazil: Narrative Review".Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 4.11 (2021): 37-42.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Raquel da Franca. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.