Older adults who walk at least 4,000 steps just once or twice a week may lower their risk of premature death by a quarter, according to a new study.
Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the study – conducted by experts from Harvard University – included 13,547 women aged 62 and over, with an average age of 72. Participants wore activity trackers for seven days between 2011 and 2015 and were monitored for over a decade. At the beginning, none had heart disease or cancer.
However, by the end of last year, 1,765 women had died and 781 had developed cardiovascular disease (CVD). Experts found that walking at least 4,000 steps on one or two days each week was linked to a 26% lower risk of death from any cause and a 27% lower risk of deaths caused by heart disease.
Likewise, women who completed 4,000 steps on three or more days a week saw their risk of death from any cause drop by 40%, though the reduction in cardiovascular death remained at 27%.
‘The important takeaway was that it is the amount people walk, rather than the number of days on which they achieve a certain number of steps, that is most important for reducing the risk of premature death,’ the lead researchers of the study said.
They added that there is no ‘best’ way to take your steps, it’s just important to fit them into routine. The academics said the ‘greater number of steps, regardless of daily patterns, is associated with better health outcomes’.
Overall, the study – otherwise known as Association between frequency of meeting daily step thresholds and all‑cause mortality and cardiovascular disease in older women – showed that on average, the women walked 5,615 steps a day. The researchers noted that the study was purely observational and that no firm conclusions could be drawn about cause and effect.
Against this backdrop, the research also had a number of limitations including the fact that it was only comprised of women and each participant was only assessed for a week.
Regardless, the researchers wrote: ‘The present study … suggests that frequency of meeting daily step thresholds is not critical (even one to two days a week of [more than] 4,000 steps a day was related to lower mortality and CVD), and that step volume is more important than the frequency of meeting daily step thresholds in the older population.’
‘An important translational implication of these findings is that since step volume is the important driver of the inverse associations, there is no ‘better’ or ‘best’ pattern to take steps; individuals can undertake [physical activity] in any preferred pattern (eg ‘slow and steady’ v ‘bunched patterns’) for lower mortality and CVD risk, at least among older women.’
Photo by Daniel Bernard via UnSplash
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