How to prevent CVD and early death? Take a walk

People who walk as few as approximately 2,500 and 2,700 steps per day appear to enjoy significantly lower risks of mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD), with greater risk reductions seen when walking up to about 8,800 and 7,100 steps per day, respectively, suggests a study.

Additional mortality benefits have been observed when walking at a moderate to high step cadence, according to the authors.

The authors carried out a meta-analysis to determine dose-response associations of objectively measured step count metrics in the general population. They searched electronic databases from inception to October 2022 for relevant studies. Results were analysed using generalized least squares and random effects models.

Twelve studies with a total of 111,309 individuals were included in the study. Significant reductions in the risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.92, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.84‒0.999) and incident CVD (aHR, 0.89, 95 percent CI, 0.79‒0.999) were found at 2,517 and 2,735 steps per day, respectively, compared with 2,000 steps per day (reference).

In addition, walking some more steps gave rise to greater risk reductions for all-cause mortality and incident CVD: 8,763 steps per day (aHR, 0.40, 95 percent CI, 0.38‒0.43) and 7,126 steps per day (aHR, 0.49, 95 percent CI, 0.45‒0.55), respectively.

Notably, an increase in pacing from a low to an intermediate or a high cadence showed an independent association with a lower all-cause mortality risk.

Sex had no effect on the dose-response associations. After stratifying for assessment device and wear location, significant reductions in risks were noted for hip-worn accelerometers compared with pedometers and wrist-worn accelerometers.

“These findings can extend contemporary physical activity prescriptions given the easy-to-understand concept of step count,” the authors said.