Walking briskly may lower risk of death in some adults: Study
Walking faster for 30 minutes per day can lower the risk of death in some adults, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Australia and Spain looked at 1approximately 70, 000 adults between ages 40 and 69.
Participants were broken into four categories: under 5,000 steps a day, between 5,000 and 7,000 steps a day, between 7,500 and 10,000 steps a day and above 10,000 steps a day.
The researchers also timed each participant's peak 30-minute cadence, or the average steps per minute during the most active 30 minutes of the day.
Results showed that the group with under 5,000 steps a day, a level considered as a sedentary lifestyle, -- but with a peak 30-minute cadence of between 60 to 90 steps per minute -- had a lower risk of death than those with a slower peak 30-minute cadence.
Results showed that the group with under 5,000 steps a day -- but with a peak 30-minute cadence of 80 steps per minute -- had a lower risk of death than those with a slower peak 30-minute cadence.
The death risk was similar to those within the 5,000 to 7,500 steps per day group who walked at a slower pace, but with a peak cadence of 60 steps per minute.
"We found that among people accumulating fewer than 5,000 steps a day, a faster stepping pace was associated with lower risk of premature death and in some cases, this was comparable to those people taking more total steps but at a slower pace," Dr Nicholas Koemel, senior research fellow at Monash University in the School of Psychological Sciences, told ABC News. "So pace can act as a kind of trade-off, at least up to a point."
The group with 7,500 to 10,000 steps per day had the lowest chance of death regardless of how fast those steps were accumulated, according to the study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The authors said their findings provide evidence for stepping up the intensity when walking.
They added that the results "may inform step-based interventions for middle-aged and older adults, particularly individuals with barriers to increasing daily step counts or stepping intensity."
The study had some limitations; participants only needed to log three days of activity to qualify, for example.
"Our study moves beyond single-metric approaches (e.g., focusing solely on daily step counts) to examine combinations of different step dimensions in relation to mortality risk, informing future step-related public health and clinical guidelines," the authors wrote.
"The main takeaway is that both how many steps you take and how fast you take them can impact your risk of death and disease," Koemel said. "So there isn't just one path to meaningful health benefit. If you can't increase how much you walk, increasing how briskly you walk, even for short bursts, may offer a comparable benefit."
Dr. Varun Mehta is a fourth-year resident at Mount Sinai Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
ABC News' Ava Tsapatsaris contributed to this report.
