Cited by 577Physical Activity and HealthSchizophrenia research and treatmentMotivation and Self-Concept in Sports

Motivating factors and barriers towards exercise in severe mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Open access
Firth, J., Rosenbaum, S., Stubbs, B., Gorczynski, P., Yung, A. R., Vancampfort, D.·2016·Psychological Medicine

Abstract

Exercise can improve clinical outcomes in people with severe mental illness (SMI). However, this population typically engages in low levels of physical activity with poor adherence to exercise interventions. Understanding the motivating factors and barriers towards exercise for people with SMI would help to maximize exercise participation. A search of major electronic databases was conducted from inception until May 2016. Quantitative studies providing proportional data on the motivating factors and/or barriers towards exercise among patients with SMI were eligible. Random-effects meta-analyses were undertaken to calculate proportional data and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for motivating factors and barriers toward exercise. From 1468 studies, 12 independent studies of 6431 psychiatric patients were eligible for inclusion. Meta-analyses showed that 91% of people with SMI endorsed ‘improving health’ as a reason for exercise ( N = 6, n = 790, 95% CI 80–94). Among specific aspects of health and well-being, the most common motivations were ‘losing weight’ (83% of patients), ‘improving mood’ (81%) and ‘reducing stress’ (78%). However, low mood and stress were also identified as the most prevalent barriers towards exercise (61% of patients), followed by ‘lack of support’ (50%). Many of the desirable outcomes of exercise for people with SMI, such as mood improvement, stress reduction and increased energy, are inversely related to the barriers of depression, stress and fatigue which frequently restrict their participation in exercise. Providing patients with professional support to identify and achieve their exercise goals may enable them to overcome psychological barriers, and maintain motivation towards regular physical activity.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0033291716001732

Cites

57 of 57 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • People with severe mental illness experience a range of barriers to engaging in physical activity and exercise, such as high levels of perceived stress, somatic comorbidities, low mood, and a lack of self-confidence and of social support.

    “However, people with severe mental illness experience a range of barriers to engaging in physical activity and exercise, such as high levels of perceived stress, somatic comorbidities, low mood, and a lack of self-confidence and of social support 7-11 .”
  • Lack of support is one of the largest barriers toward exercise in patients with serious mental illness.

    “The intervention holds tremendous promise as lack of support is one of the largest barriers toward exercise in patients with serious mental illness (Firth et al., 2016) and it is now possible to use social media to counter such.”
  • There is emerging evidence that online peer-support platforms, smartphone apps, and fitness trackers can successfully increase walking and physical activity in people with severe mental illness.

    “Although there are very few evaluations of mHealth for physical health in mental illness, there is emerging evidence that online peer-support platforms, smartphone apps and fitness trackers can successfully increase walking and physical activity in people with SMI.257,341,342”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Firth, J., Rosenbaum, S., Stubbs, B., Gorczynski, P., Yung, A. R., & Vancampfort, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Manchester (GB)
  • UNSW Sydney (AU)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • University of Portsmouth (GB)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • KU Leuven (BE)
Corresponding author
Firth, J.
Venue
Psychological Medicine
Published
2016-08-09
Volume
46
Issue
14
Pages
2869-2881
ISSN
  • 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8978
OpenAlex
W2513004262
Cited by
577
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 59 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 73 · 2022: 61 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 5
FWCI
5.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Medical Research Council
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports
Keywords
exercise motivation, barriers to exercise, severe mental illness, physical activity, exercise adherence, weight loss, mood improvement, stress reduction, depression, fatigue, social support, exercise intervention
MeSH terms
Mental Disorders, Humans, Motivation, Exercise

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review