2,200 Is Minimum Number of Daily Steps Needed to Lower Death, CVD Risk

FRIDAY, March 15, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Any amount of activity above 2,200 steps per day is associated with lower mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, regardless of sedentary time, according to a study published online March 5 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Matthew N. Ahmadi, from University of Sydney, and colleagues examined associations between daily step count and all-cause mortality and incident CVD by sedentary time levels. Analysis included data from 72,174 older participants in the U.K. Biobank followed for 6.9 years.

The researchers found that compared to a reference of 2,200 steps/day (fifth percentile), the optimal dose (nadir of the curve) for all-cause mortality ranged between 9,000 and 10,500 steps/day for high (hazard ratio [HR], 0.61) and low (HR, 0.69) sedentary time. There was a subtle gradient of association by sedentary time level with the lowest risk of incident CVD observed at approximately 9,700 steps/day for high (HR, 0.79) and low (HR, 0.71) sedentary time. Across sedentary time groups, the minimal dose (steps/day associated with 50 percent of the optimal dose) of daily steps was between 4,000 and 4,500 steps/day for all-cause mortality and incident CVD.

“For a roughly equivalent number of steps/day, the risk of incident CVD was lower for low sedentary time compared with high sedentary time,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text