Psychological distress and mental health issues
are prominent public health problems
in the world today and depression is one of
the most common mental health disorders. The
lifetime prevalence of major depression in Europe
has been found to be 12.8%1 and a Danish study
showed that the prevalence is increasing.2 Many
people with depression do not seek help from professionals
instead they try to cope by using selfhelp
strategies.3,4 One of the most popular self-help
strategies for depression is exercise5 and it has the
advantage of being potentially cost-effective, with
few side-effects.