Is physical activity related to a reduction in the severity of borderline personality disorder through less severe insomnia disorder?

Abstract

Introduction

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with severe suffering and insomnia disorder (ID) (Fertuck et al., 2016; Galbiati et al., 2020).

Objectives

The aim was to investigate the negative association between self-reported physical activity (PA) and the severity of BPD with ID acting as a mediator (St-Amour et al., 2021).

Methods

The role of ID within the association of PA with BPD was tested using mediation analysis with the statistical program R 4.3 (N = 120; RStudio Team, 2020).

Results

Table 1

Mediation analysis results

	β	se	t	p	LLCI	ULCI
Effect a	0.07	0.05	1.46	0.15	-0.03	0.17
Effect b	0.41	0.09	4.60	< 0.001	0.23	0.59
Effect c	0.11	0.05	2.16	0.03	0.01	0.21
Effect c’	0.08	0.05	1.70	0.09	-0.01	0.17

Note: β = beta coefficients; se = standard error; t = t-value; p = p-value; LLCI = lower limit confidence interval; ULCI = upper limit confidence interval. Effect c’: The association within the mediation analysis is not significant (β = 0.08, se = 0.05, p = 0.09). Effect a: PA is not significantly associated with ID (β = 0.07, se = 0.05, p = 0.15). Effect b and c: ID (β = 0.41, se = 0.09, p < 0.001) and PA (β = 0.11, se = 0.05, p = 0.03) are significantly associated with the severity of BPD.

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Conclusions

Accordingly, ID does not appear to affect the association of PA and BPD severity whereas fewer PA and severe ID can nonetheless have a positive association with the symptoms of BPD in independent ways.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared