一般醫學界普遍認為，運動可以保持身體健康，也能促進心理健康。國內因教育制度關係，大部分的人從小就被要求參與過量的學業學習，以及多項的才藝輔導課程，嚴重剝奪了體能活動時間，隨年紀增長尚需面對內、外在的競爭壓力，很多人飽受憂鬱情緒困擾，雖然國人普遍認同運動可以紓解壓力的說法，但卻沒有被廣泛重視。本文調查中部地區約1500位16歲以上之青年、中年及老年人之運動休閒活動參與情況，並施以憂鬱指數之自我測量（董氏基金會提供之台灣人憂鬱症量表），使用集群分析方法，使用個人的運動休閒時間、運動次數與運動偏好等變數，將這些與運動休閒活動參與程度有關之觀察值進行分群，並分析其與憂鬱情緒、憂鬱程度之間的關連性。研究結果可將運動休閒活動參與程度觀察值分為三群，第一群代表中程度運動參與群，第二群代表低程度運動參與群，與第三群為高程度運動參與群。研究結果也發現，高程度體能活動群，其憂鬱程度顯著較低。因此，經由此集群分析結果可知，參與運動休閒活動程度愈高者，其憂鬱情緒較低。

The medical professionals generally believe that exercises can not only help stay healthy, but also promote mental health. Due to Taiwan's education system, most children are required to participate in over-learning after schoolwork activities and different kinds of talent tutoring classes which seriously deprive of students' leisure time physical activities. As time goes by, people in Taiwan need to face the inner stress and external competition pressure. Many people are suffering from emotional depression. Although Taiwan people generally agree the fact that exercises can help relieve pressure, exercises haven't been emphasized. This research is based on data collected from 1,500 samples including the teenagers with above the age of 16, the middle-aged people and the older adults in Taichung area. It aimed to investigate their leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and self measurement of depression index (Taiwanese Depression Scale was provided by John Tung Foundation). Variables included personal leisure time physical activities, exercise frequency and sports preference. We adopted the cluster analysis method to divide each observation related to physical activities into clusters and also to analyze the relevance between depression emotion and levels of depression. We would group each observation of leisure time physical activities into three clusters on research result. The first cluster showed middle level sports participation. The second one showed low level sports participation and the third one showed high level sports participation. The research results finding that high level of LTPA clusters (high levels sports participation) shows significantly lower degree of depression emotion. As a result of cluster analysis, the more the participation, the better impact for relieving depression emotion.