Increasing daily step count lowers cardiovascular disease and mortality risks

Walking between 9,000 and 10,000 steps every day can completely counteract the harmful health effects of prolonged sitting, an international team of researchers discovered on Thursday. The study revealed that increasing daily movement drastically lowers the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and suffering an early death. These findings offer vital health interventions for individuals who lead highly sedentary lifestyles or work desk jobs.

The research was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, with an earlier version of the article originally appearing in March 2024. University of Sydney Population Health Scientist Matthew Ahmadi explained that while the findings are significant, they do not excuse excessive physical inactivity.

"This is by no means a get out of jail card for people who are sedentary for excessive periods of time," Ahmadi said. "However, it does hold an important public health message that all movement matters and that people can and should try to offset the health consequences of unavoidable sedentary time by upping their daily step count."

Analysing the UK Biobank dataset

Ahmadi and his colleagues analysed comprehensive health tracking data from 72,174 volunteers who contributed to the UK Biobank. This large, long-term dataset was established in 2006 and will continue to track the health measures of its participants over at least 30 years. Each volunteer included in the study had an average of 6.9 years' worth of general health data available for analysis.

Participants wore specialised wrist accelerometers for seven days to estimate their typical physical activity levels. The devices measured the number of steps they usually took and the time they usually spent sitting. The researchers determined that the median time spent sedentary was 10.6 hours each day. Volunteers who sat for more than 10.6 hours were classified as having 'high sedentary time', while those sitting less were classified as having 'low sedentary time'.

Health thresholds and optimal targets

The final results apply only to people who were generally healthy for at least the first two years of data collection. Participants whose initial statistics might have been affected by poor health were excluded from the study. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the gathered data included participants with physical disabilities that affect their daily step count.

The team found that accumulating between 9,000 and 10,000 daily steps was the optimal target to counteract a highly sedentary lifestyle. Reaching this specific threshold lowered incident cardiovascular disease risk by 21 per cent and mortality risk by 39 per cent. Regardless of how much time a participant spent sitting, the researchers discovered that 50 per cent of the total health benefits kicked in at around 4,000 to 4,500 daily steps.

"Any amount of daily steps above the referent 2,200 steps per day was associated with lower mortality and incident CVD risk, for low and high sedentary time," Ahmadi and his colleagues wrote. "Accruing between 9,000 and 10,000 steps a day optimally lowered the risk of mortality and incident CVD among highly sedentary participants."