4,000 Steps on One or Two Days Linked to Lower Death and CVD Risk

A large observational study of older U.S. women found that walking as few as 4,000 steps on one or two days a week was associated with substantially lower risks of early death and cardiovascular disease, researchers reported. The study tracked more than 13,500 women with an average age of about 72 who wore accelerometers for seven days between 2011 and 2015 and were followed for nearly 11 years.

Researchers divided participants by how many days per week they reached thresholds of 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 and 7,000 steps. Compared with women who did not reach 4,000 steps on any monitored day, those who hit 4,000 on one or two days had about a 26 percent lower risk of death from any cause and about a 27 percent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the follow up period. Women who reached 4,000 steps on three or more days saw larger reductions in mortality, roughly 40 percent, while the cardiovascular benefit held at roughly 27 percent.

The investigators said the total number of steps taken, rather than the frequency of days meeting a particular threshold, appears to drive the association with better outcomes. In other words, women with similar overall step volumes had...