Is 4,000 steps once or twice a week enough to improve your health?
Older women can cut their risk of cardiovascular disease and death by walking at least 4,000 steps once or twice a week, suggests a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study looked at data from 13,547 American women, with a mean age of 71.8 years, from the U.S. Women’s Health Study who hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer or cardiovascular disease. These women were each given accelerometers to count their steps during seven consecutive days sometime between 2011 and 2015, and then had their health followed into 2024. During the follow-up period, 13 percent of the participants died, and 5.1 percent developed cardiovascular disease.
The results:
- Women who walked at least 4,000 steps daily on one or two days a week had a 26 percent lower risk of dying from any cause and a 27 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than women in the study who never walked at least 4,000 steps on any day during the week.
- Walking at least 4,000 steps daily on three or more days a week decreased their risk of dying from any cause by 32 percent, according to a BMJ Group press release on the study.
- Higher daily levels of 5,000, 6,000 and 7,000 steps in a week were associated with further reduction in the risk of death from any cause, but reduction in the chance of death from cardiovascular disease plateaued.
The study was observational and does not prove cause and effect.
Attempting to Quantify Benefit
Elissa Thompson, MD, a cardiologist at Cape Cod Healthcare’s Cardiovascular Center in Chatham, noted the study looked at participants’ steps for only a single week and extrapolated that their individual patterns were characteristic of each woman’s regular physical activity.
“It’s a huge assumption,” she said.
However, she said the researchers were attempting to quantify what levels of exercise should be recommended for older women, with an eye toward the updating of Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, set for 2028. The existing guidelines recommend adults perform:
- 2.5-5 hours a week of moderate intensity physical activity, or
- 1.25-2.5 hours of vigorous aerobic activity, which should be done throughout the week, or
- an equivalent combination of the two.
The guidelines say older adults should:
- Incorporate balance training along with aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.
- Determine their own level of activity, considering their degree of fitness and any chronic health conditions. Those who can’t do 2.5 hours a week of moderate aerobic activity because of chronic conditions should try to do as much as they can and avoid inactivity.
Activity is Good for You
The study attempts to quantify what we already know, Dr. Thompson said:
“Exercise is good.”
Exercise improves blood glucose levels and blood pressure, and helps maintain a healthy body weight, she said, noting more women than men die of heart disease and exercise is a good intervention for anyone anytime.
“We always recommend exercise – always,” she said, though not all patients follow this advice.
The study suggests the number of steps taken in a day outweighs frequency.
“It doesn’t matter if you do it in a block or spread it out,” Dr. Thompson said.
The women in the study “did better incrementally the more steps they did,” she continued, indicating “the more activity you perform, the better you will be.”
The study utilized accelerometers to count steps, and fitness watches and smartphones with a step counting app can easily perform the same function, Dr. Thompson said. The ubiquitous nature of these devices makes keeping track of a daily step count a readily available option for most people.
The study does provide “a real nice look at what a baseline could be” for older women, Dr. Thompson said.
“There’s room for a lot of real-world studies. The question is what (type of) exercise? At what level of activity do you actually derive benefits?”
