Pattern, preferences, barriers, and correlates of self-reported physical activity in adults with borderline personality disorder: An online survey in western countries

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by an instability of self-image, interpersonal relationships, and emotions and is highly comorbid with other disorders. Physical activity has shown great results in treating these disorders. Physical activity intervention should be built considering the preferences and barriers of the targeted individuals. However, to this day no study analyzed the preferences and barriers to physical activity in individuals with BPD, which is the goal of this study. We used an online survey to question 192 adults with a self-reported diagnosis of BPD from Canada, France, the United States, England, Switzerland, and New Zealand. Participants complete 607 minutes of physical activity weekly on average. They prefer walking (66.7%), biking (33.3%), aquatic activities (29.0%), and running (24.2%). Their main barriers to physical activity are having a friend over, having other engagements, and recovering from an injury. They also prefer doing individual supervised physical activity outside and in a long session of moderate intensity. Finally, a majority of participants are interested in receiving physical activity advice, but most did not. The professionals from whom they would prefer to receive advice are trainers, psychiatrists, physical therapists, and psychologists. These results are important to better tailor future physical activity interventions for adults with BPD.