Taking advantage of the growing popularity of trackers and applications, steps are easily understood and widely used in public health to encourage the practice of activity, said one of the lead authors, Emmanuel Stamatakis, of Physical Activity and Public health professor recalls. University of Sydney.
10,000 steps per day, yes, but fast!
2 studies, published in JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Neurology, followed 78,500 participants equipped with trackers to track the exact number of steps taken daily and match this data with health outcomes. The research used UK Biobank data to match step count data to participants’ health outcomes after 7 years.
Participants wore an accelerometer on their wrist to measure their physical activity over a period of 7 days (minimum of 3 days, including one weekend day and monitoring during sleep periods). Only those free of heart disease, cancer, or dementia during the first two years of the study and those free of disease during the first two years of the study were included in the final evaluation. Statistical adjustments were also made to account for potential confounders.
The analysis confirms that following this guideline of 10,000 minimum steps per day is associated with:
- Lower risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death;
- In people who are not very active in the beginning, 3,800 steps per day already reduces the risk of dementia by 25%;
- Still with respect to dementia, 9,800 steps appears to be the optimal threshold, which is associated with a 50% reduction in the risk of dementia;
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The more important advantage is the faster pace of stepping such as brisk walking,
only the number of steps taken; Step intensity or fast walking speed is inversely dependent on the risks of dementia, heart disease, cancer, and death and is dose-dependent. Therefore this association is valid regardless of the total number of daily steps;
- Each daily increase of 2,000 steps gradually reduces the risk of premature death by 8 to 11% and this decreases to about 10,000 steps per day;
- Similar relationships are seen for the incidence of heart disease and cancer.
“So it’s not just about aiming to ideally walk 10,000 steps a day, but it’s also about walking fast”,
Summarizes one of the lead authors, Dr Matthew Ahmadi, a researcher at the University of Sydney.
Research will continue with longer-term use of trackers.
