Modest walking changes may lower heart risk for older adults

New research suggests that older adults can substantially lower their risk of heart disease and early death by modest changes to how and when they walk, without meeting popular daily step targets. Two large observational studies, one of more than 13,500 older women and another of roughly 33,500 adults of mixed ages, found that small, achievable increases in step volume and lengthening the duration of walking bouts were both linked with lower long‑term cardiovascular risk.

The study of older women, led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, followed 13,547 women with no heart disease or cancer, average age 72, for nearly 11 years. Participants wore hip step counters for a week at baseline. Women who recorded at least one or two days a week of about 4,000 steps had a 26 percent lower risk of dying early and a 27 percent lower risk of developing heart disease compared with those who remained largely sedentary, the authors reported. The team found additional, smaller reductions in risk for those reaching 5,000 to 7,000 steps, and concluded that total steps matter more than achieving a threshold on every day.