Walking pace is as important as step count: health research

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Southern Denmark have confirmed that 10,000 steps a day is the ‘sweet spot’ for lowered risk of disease and death — but how fast you walk could be just as important.

The team’s research used data from the UK Biobank to link up step count data from 78,500 UK adults aged 40 to 79 years with health outcomes seven years on. Participants wore a wrist accelerometer to measure physical activity over a period of seven days (minimum three days, including a weekend day and monitoring during sleep periods); this information was linked with participants’ health records through sources including inpatient hospital and primary care records, and cancer and death registries.

Only those who were free of cardiovascular disease, cancer or dementia at baseline and disease-free in the first two years of the study were included in the final assessment. Statistical adjustments were also made for confounders, such as the fact that people who do more steps generally walk faster. The final results were published in the journals JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Neurology.

The researchers found lowered risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death are associated with achieving 10,000 steps a day. However, a faster stepping pace like a power walk showed benefits above and beyond the number of steps achieved.

“Step count is easily understood and widely used by the public to track activity levels thanks to the growing popularity of fitness trackers and apps, but rarely do people think about the pace of their steps,” said senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis.

“Findings from these studies could inform the first formal step-based physical activity guidelines and help develop effective public health programs aimed at preventing chronic disease.”

The studies found that every 2000 steps lowered risk of premature death incrementally by 8–11%, up to approximately 10,000 steps a day. Similar associations were seen for cardiovascular disease and cancer incidence. A higher number of steps per day was also associated with a lower risk of all-cause dementia — 9800 steps was the optimal dose linked to lower risk of dementia by 50% — however, risk was reduced by 25% at as low as 3800 steps a day. All that said, stepping intensity or a faster pace showed beneficial associations for all outcomes (dementia, heart disease, cancer and death) over and above total daily steps.

“The take-home message here is that for protective health benefits people could not only ideally aim for 10,000 steps a day but also aim to walk faster,” said co-lead author Dr Matthew Ahmadi. And while the researchers acknowledged that the studies are observational, meaning they cannot show direct cause and effect, they noted the strong and consistent associations seen across both studies at the population level.

“The size and scope of these studies using wrist-worn trackers makes it the most robust evidence to date suggesting that 10,000 steps a day is the sweet spot for health benefits and walking faster is associated with additional benefits,” Ahmadi said.

“Going forward more research with longer-term use of trackers will shed more light on the health benefits associated with certain levels and intensity of daily stepping.”

Image credit: iStock.com/nycshooter

Please follow us and share on Twitter and Facebook. You can also subscribe for FREE to our weekly newsletters and bimonthly magazine.