For those who spend long hours at their desks, a new study offers some encouraging news. Research from the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney (Australia) suggests that increasing the number of steps you take each day may reduce the health risks associated with prolonged sitting.
The survey results are British Journal of Sports Medicinebased on data from over 72,000 individuals. Researchers found that for each increase in daily step count, up to about 10,000 steps per day, the risk of death (39 percent) and cardiovascular disease (21 percent) decreased. These benefits were seen regardless of how much time participants spent sitting.
Why daily steps are important for health
Previous studies have already linked increased step count to lower risk of death and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Other studies have shown that spending long periods of time sitting may increase the same risk. What makes this study unique is that it used objective data from wearable devices to directly investigate whether walking more can help counteract the negative effects of sedentary behavior.
Lead author and researcher Dr. Matthew Ahmadi stressed that walking is not a complete solution to sitting too much. “While this is by no means a get-out-of-jail-free card for overly sedentary people, it does contain an important public health message that every move counts and that people can and should offset the inevitable health effects of sedentary time by increasing the number of steps they take each day.”
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, director of the MacKenzie Wearables Research Hub at the Charles Perkins Center and lead author, highlighted the far-reaching implications of this type of research. Research relying on wearable devices offers new possibilities for understanding and improving public health.
“Step counts are a visible and easy-to-understand measure of physical activity that can help people in the community, and even health professionals, accurately monitor physical activity. We hope this evidence will inform the first generation of device-based physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines, which should include key recommendations on daily walking,” Professor Stamatakis said.
How did researchers measure step counts and sitting time?
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed information from 72,174 participants (mean age 61 years, 58% women) from the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database. Each participant wore an accelerometer on their wrist for seven days, allowing researchers to track both their steps and their sedentary time, defined as the amount of time spent sitting or lying down during waking hours.
The team then monitored the participants’ health over time by linking their data to hospital records and death registers.
Participants walked an average of 6,222 steps per day. The least active group, defined as those taking approximately 2200 steps per day (the lowest 5 percent of daily steps among all participants), served as the baseline for comparison.
Participants spent an average of 10.6 hours per day sedentary. Those who spent more than 10.5 hours sedentary were classified as sedentary, and those below that threshold were considered sedentary.
To improve accuracy, researchers excluded people who were in poor health, were underweight, or had experienced a major health event within two years of follow-up. We also adjusted for factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, diet, and family history of CVD and cancer.
Step count linked to lower risk of death and heart disease
During an average follow-up period of 6.9 years, 1,633 of the participants died and 6,190 developed cardiovascular disease.
After considering a variety of influencing factors, the researchers identified a clear pattern. The greatest reduction in risk was seen among people who took 9,000 to 10,000 steps per day. At this level, the risk of death was reduced by 39 percent and the risk of cardiovascular disease was reduced by 21 percent.
Importantly, significant benefits were seen even well below that range. About half of the total risk reduction was achieved with just 4000 to 4500 steps per day.
Research limitations and important points
Because this is an observational study, it cannot prove causation. While the large sample size and long-term follow-up support the results, the researchers note that unmeasured factors may still be at play. They also point out that step counts and sedentary time were measured at a single point, which could introduce some bias.
Still, the overall message is clear. Even if you spend most of your day sitting, taking more steps each day is linked to a lower risk of death and cardiovascular disease.
The authors concluded: “Daily steps greater than 2,200 steps per day were associated with lower mortality and CVD risk for both short and high sedentary periods. An increase from 9,000 to 10,000 steps per day optimally reduced mortality and CVD risk in sedentary participants.”
