Even a little wander is enough to improve your health.
A large meta-analysis may put the 10,000 steps goal to bed for good.
University of Sydney researchers analysed pooled data from 57 studies on 35 cohorts and found that even surpassing 2000 steps per day was enough to improve health outcomes.
There appeared to be a dose-response relationship, where all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, dementia and falls declined as the steps increased, reaching an optimal level at around 5000-7000 steps per day.
Getting even more steps than that did decrease the risks of CVD mortality, cancer incidence and mortality, type 2 diabetes incidence and depressive symptoms.
But the improvement at these higher step counts was incremental, the authors said.
“Although 10,000 steps per day can still be a viable target for those who are more active, 7000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a more realistic and achievable target for some,” the authors wrote.
“Importantly, even a modest step count was associated with lower risk. For example, 4000 steps per day compared with 2000 steps per day was associated with substantial risk reduction, such as a 36% lower risk in all-cause mortality.
“Similar to current moderate-intensity to vigorous-intensity physical activity recommendations, the message that every step counts for those who are able should be emphasised as a core public health message, regardless of the specific quantitative target.”
Nevertheless, they said more research was needed to account for the role of age, health outcomes, device type and measurement methods.
