The more we walk every day, the longer we have to live on average. But at some point, enough is enough: more steps don't add years. When that time comes depends on our age.
Double the number of steps = half the risk of death
Spectrum of Science
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A well-known rule of thumb is to walk 10,000 steps a day. The number goes back to an advertising campaign, but also corresponds to the state of research - for adults up to 60 years of age. Senior citizens can stop after 8,000 steps at the latest: Continuing to walk apparently does not bring them any additional years of life. That is the result of a meta-analysis published in "Lancet Public Health" by an international research team led by Amanda Paluch of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
The group evaluated data from more than 47,000 test subjects, who came from Europe, the United States and Asia, among other countries. On average, the people walked 6500 steps a day; half managed more, the other half less. At the end of the longitudinal studies, which lasted about seven years on average, about 3000 people had died. The probability of this happening was lower for both men and women the more steps they walked - up to a certain limit. This optimum depended on age: under 60 years of age, 8000 to 10 000 steps a day were required, above which the risk of death did not drop any further. From the age of 60, 6000 to 8000 steps were enough.
Older people apparently needed significantly fewer steps than the frequently mentioned 10 000, the researchers write. A study at Harvard Medical School had already come to a similar conclusion with women: The test subjects, on average in their early 70s, reached their optimum at 7500 steps a day. Below this level, the fewer steps they took, the fewer years of life they could expect.
Studies have repeatedly shown that just 1000 more steps a day can reduce the risk of death. For people who don't like to walk, a quarter of an hour more exercise a day could be worthwhile. The new meta-analysis calculated the average benefit: mortality in the group with 3600 to 5800 steps was 40 percent lower than in the group with up to 3600 steps; with even more steps, it was about 50 percent less.
As early as 2020, a representative long-term study in the USA had calculated that in the group of people who walked around 8,000 steps a day, only half as many died within ten years as in those with a stint of 4,000 steps - irrespective of obesity and previous illnesses. In particular, the risk of succumbing to cardiovascular disease fell significantly as the number of steps increased. The pace does not seem to play a major role, but the data are still inconclusive, the researchers write. It is difficult to separate the effects of the number of steps and the pace of walking, because those who walk faster generally take more steps. However, it is certain that a lot of exercise prolongs life: people who enjoy walking still have more time to live than those who don't, even if they are equally healthy or ill. However, a reverse causality cannot be completely ruled out. For example, a reduced enjoyment of running could also be an early warning sign of an incipient physical decline.
