Do we really need to take 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy? Although some studies show that we can stay fit by taking only 5,000 steps a day, new research published on March 5, 2024 in the scientific journal, British Journal of Sports Medicine, ensures that the goal of 10,000 steps a day remains relevant for many people, especially those who sit all day.
More specifically, the authors of this study, from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney (Australia), show that the more steps we take per day, the more we reduce our cardiovascular risk. Each additional step taken to reach 10,000 was correlated with a 39% reduction in the risk of death and a 21% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease, regardless of the time spent sedentary in a day.
This lesson, conducted on more than 72,000 people, stands out from previous research on the subject because it combines observations of the benefits of daily walking with an objective analysis of health risks related to sedentary behavior using wrist-worn accelerometers. This device ensures reliable measurement of the physical activity of participants and their sitting time.
“This does not in any way mean that increasing daily steps is equivalent to giving a parole card to people who sit for too long. However, this research conveys an important public health message: every movement counts and everyone can and should try to counter the health consequences of inevitable sitting time by increasing daily steps,” said the lead author of the paper in a University of Sydney press release, medical researcher Matthew Ahmadi.
The authors of this study therefore wish to highlight the relevance of daily step count as a clear and simple method of measuring physical activity. “The step count is a real and easy-to-understand measure of physical activity that can help patients and healthcare professionals accurately monitor physical activity,” explained another author of the study, Emmanuel Stamatakis, a researcher specializing in physical activity and sedentary lifestyles. Yang concluded, “We hope this will contribute to providing information to the first generation that has used electronic devices to measure physical activity.”
Ideally, according to the researchers, we should take 9,000 to 10,000 steps per day to optimally reduce mortality and cardiovascular risk, especially in sedentary individuals. However, taking only 4,000 to 4,500 steps can provide half of these benefits.