Studying Effect of Fasting during Ramadan on Mental Health of University Students in Iran: A Review

Fasting is one of the oldest worships that have been common among the people and nations of the world. The most comprehensive and the best fasting is the fasting in Ramadan by Muslims, which is obligatory in Islam for every eligible man and woman. Several factors can affect people's mental health, one of the most important of which can be spiritual and religious beliefs, especially fasting. Therefore, this research aims to review the effect of fasting in Ramadan on mental health of university students in Iran. This study was a simple review in 2017 to investigate the effect of fasting in Ramadan on mental health of Iranian university students. Research data has been collected through the search of published articles in Internet resources and scientific databases including (SID, MAGIRAN, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) and with searching 3 terms "fasting, students and mental health" without linguistic and time limitations. In total, 11 published articles have been used in this research. Based on the results of 11 studied researches, it can be claimed that students’ fasting during Ramadan increases their mental health. Strong religious beliefs, especially fasting, affect all aspects of mental health of students and cause students to feel less depress and anxiety and to better come to terms with psychological crises and problems.