>8000 step a day could lower risk of early death, study finds

02apr20 26-24mar2020 

compared with taking 4,000 steps per day,

taking 8,000 steps per day was associated with about a 50% lower risk of death and

taking 12,000 steps per day was associated with a 65% lower risk of death.

By contrast the team found no link between

     mortality and the intensity of steps

     – explored by looking at steps per minute – once the total number of steps taken was considered.

step monitoring in more than 4,800 adults aged 40 or over has shown that higher step counts are associated with a lower chance of death from any cause over a 10-year period. What is more, it seems individuals do not need to hit 10,000 steps a day to start seeing a benefit.

By contrast, taking 2,000 steps per day was linked to a 50% greater risk of death than hitting 4,000 steps per day, with 21.7 deaths per 1,000 adults per year compared with 14.4 deaths per 1,000 adults per year respectively.

Further analysing showed higher step counts were also associated with a lower risk of death from

cardiovascular disease and

cancer.

However, the study has limitations, including that

it cannot prove that the increased walking is the cause of a reduced risk of death, while

participants’ data on their health and lifestyle

was only collected at one point in time and by self-report,

and activity was only monitored over one week.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/24/higher-step-counts-could-lower-risk-early-death-study-finds