Many people push themselves to hit 10,000 steps a day, believing anything less does not count as real exercise. But a new study suggests that walking faster can lower the risk of premature death even for those who fall short of 5,000 steps.
A research team led by Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis at the University of Sydney published the findings on the 9th in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, drawing on about eight years of tracking activity levels and health outcomes for more than 103,000 UK Biobank participants.
The analysis found that even people with relatively low daily step counts tended to face a lower risk of death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease when they walked at a faster pace.
Rather than setting the same daily step target for everyone, the researchers said, people need to adjust both the volume and the intensity of their walking to fit their own schedules and physical conditions.
Studies have consistently shown that raising daily step counts helps reduce the risk of premature death. But there has been relatively little evidence on which approach works better: fewer steps at a fast pace, or more steps at a slow pace.
To address that gap, the team analyzed data from 103,684 UK Biobank participants who wore wrist accelerometers and had their physical activity measured over seven days between 2013 and 2015. The participants were mostly middle-aged and older adults, and their mortality was tracked over roughly eight years.
The all-cause mortality analysis included 64,743 people, while the cardiovascular mortality analysis included 70,075. During the follow-up period, there were 1,697 deaths from all causes and 502 from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers divided participants into four groups by daily step count: fewer than 5,000 steps, 5,000 to 7,500, 7,500 to 10,000, and more than 10,000.
Walking pace was measured as the average steps per minute during the 30 minutes of the day with the most walking. Those 30 minutes did not have to be continuous.
Among people walking fewer than 5,000 steps a day, those who reached about 80 steps per minute during their most active 30 minutes had a 28% lower risk of death from all causes than the reference group, who walked fewer than 5,000 steps a day at 45 steps per minute.
In the group walking 5,000 to 7,500 steps a day, even a pace of about 60 steps per minute was associated with a 30% lower risk of death than the reference group.
In other words, the researchers said, raising the pace may deliver health benefits comparable to walking a greater volume at a slower speed, even when the step count is low.
Conversely, people who find it hard to walk quickly could still expect health benefits by increasing their total daily steps at a slower pace.
The lowest all-cause mortality risk was found in the group that walked 7,500 to 10,000 steps a day at about 100 steps per minute.
For cardiovascular deaths, people walking 7,500 to 10,000 steps a day also showed declining risk as their pace rose to about 90 steps per minute.
Among those walking fewer than 7,500 steps a day in particular, all-cause mortality risk declined progressively as steps per minute during their most active 30 minutes increased.
Brisk walking of about 90 to 100 steps per minute was associated with relatively low mortality risk regardless of daily step count. At 90 steps per minute, the group walking fewer than 5,000 steps a day had a 36% lower risk of death than the reference group, and the group walking more than 10,000 steps a day showed a 29% lower risk.
The findings show that the health effects of walking should be assessed not simply by how many steps a person takes but also by how fast they walk, the researchers said.
That may be especially meaningful for people who sit for long stretches of the day or struggle to reach a sufficient step count, according to the analysis.
For those without time to walk a great deal, the researchers said, one option is to pick up the pace for at least 30 minutes a day. For people who find brisk walking too demanding, they added, walking 5,000 to 7,500 steps a day at a comfortable pace is another option.
Faster Pace Lowers Death Risk Even Under 5,000 Steps
