A new study says that walking at least 7,000 steps a day reduced the middle-aged people’s risk of premature death from all causes by 50 per cent to 70 per cent when compared to that of other middle-aged people who took lesser daily steps.
The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘JAMA Network Open’.
A lead author Amanda Paluch, a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst said, walking more than 10,000 steps per day — or walking faster — did not further reduce the risk. However, the developing efforts to establish proof-based on guidelines for simple, accessible physical activity that benefits health and longevity, like walking was highlighted in the study.
Paluch, assistant professor of kinesiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences said, the oft-advised 10,000 steps a day is not a scientifically established guideline but emerged as part of a decades-old marketing campaign for a Japanese pedometer.
One question Paluch and colleagues wanted to begin to answer: How many steps per day do we need for health benefits?
“That would be great to know for a public health message or for clinician-patient communication,” she said.
The researchers mined data from the arteria coronaria Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which began in 1985 and remains ongoing.
Some 2,100 participants between age 38 and 50 wore an accelerometer in 2005 or 2006.
They were followed for nearly 11 years then , and therefore the resulting data were analysed in 2020 and 2021.
The participants were separated into three comparison groups: low-step volume (under 7,000 per day), moderate (between 7,000-9,999) and high (more than 10,000).
“You see this gradual risk reduction in mortality as you get more steps,” Paluch said.
“There were substantial health benefits between 7,000 and 10,000 steps but we didn’t see a further enjoy going beyond 10,000 steps,” Paluch added.
“For people at 4,000 steps, going to 5,000 is meaningful. And from 5,000 to 6,000 steps, there’s an incremental risk reduction in all-cause mortality up to about 10,000 steps,” Paluch explained.
Several features make this study particularly interesting and informative.
For one, it involved people in time of life , while most step studies are focused on older adults.
So the findings can begin to suggest ways to stay people healthier longer and to avoid premature death, as a number of the participants experienced.
“Preventing those deaths before average anticipation – that’s an enormous deal,” Paluch said.
“Showing that steps per day might be related to premature mortality may be a new contribution to the sector ,” Paluch added.
The study also featured an equal number of men and ladies and Black and white participants.
Death rates for people walking a minimum of 7,000 steps per day were lowest among women and Blacks, compared to their more sedentary peers.
But there was a limited sample of individuals who died, and Paluch cautions that researchers got to study larger diverse populations to measure statistically significant sex and race differences.
Paluch is keen to continue researching the impact of steps per day on health and the way walking could also be beneficial during a sort of ways at different life stages.
“We checked out only one outcome here – all-cause deaths. The association could look different depending on your outcome of interest,” she concluded.
