Author(s)

Chiara Mastrogiovanni¹*, Gülşah Kurt¹,², Oscar Lederman¹,³,
Grace McKeon¹, Kemi Wright¹,⁴, & Simon Rosenbaum¹

Affiliations

1. Nutrition, Exercise & Social Equity (NExuS) Research Group, Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, School of Clinical Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia,

2. School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 2031, Australia,

3. Human Performance Research Centre, School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Moore Park, Sydney, NSW, Australia,

4. School of Health Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia,

Introduction

Mental health professionals have varying levels of expertise and training in addressing physical inactivity. Ensuring an understanding of attitudes and knowledge surrounding physical activity (PA) and confidence to discuss being physically active, is important to increase PA promotion in mental healthcare.

Method

An online, quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted using the Physical Activity- Attitudes, Confidence and Knowledge (PACK) Questionnaire. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics to determine the frequency of respondents agreeing and disagreeing with the PACK questionnaire items. The association between self-reported physical activity (PA) level of professionals and PACK scores was evaluated by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results & findings 

Data were collected between June and July 2025. In total, n=66 participants completed the survey, with 65% identifying as female, with a mean age of 40 years old (SD=11.16). Most participants were mental health nurses (30%) or psychologists (20%) with 46% working 0-5 years in their profession, 21% with 6-10 years’ experience, 18% with 10-20 years and 15% with 20+ years. Overall, participants had positive attitudes of promoting PA with over 90% agreeing or strongly agreeing with items in the ‘attitudes’ subscale. Almost half indicated they weren’t confident discussing PA (45%), assessing PA (42%) or linking people with PA supports (45%). While 97% of participants understood the relationship between PA and mental health, only 38% knew WHO PA guidelines and 58% knew of PA supports in their context. There was a statistically significant, moderate positive correlation (r=0.30, p=0.013) between participants who met PA guidelines and participants who indicated knowledge of guidelines.

Discussion

These findings suggest that while mental health professionals overwhelmingly support PA promotion, gaps remain in their confidence and knowledge, particularly around guidelines and referral pathways. Addressing these gaps through targeted education and training may strengthen the role of mental healthcare settings in promoting PA.