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Cardiovascular Benefits Seen With as Few as 2,600 Steps Daily

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Dec 6, 2023.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 6, 2023 -- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) benefits can be seen from as few as about 2,600 steps per day, according to a review recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Niels A. Stens, from Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis to quantify dose-response associations between objectively measured step count metrics in the general population. The analysis included 111,309 individuals from 12 studies.

The researchers found significant risk reductions with 2,517 steps/day for all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.92) and 2,735 steps/day for incident CVD (aHR, 0.89) versus 2,000 steps/day (reference). There was a nonlinear risk reduction seen for additional steps and risk for all-cause mortality and incident CVD with an optimal dose at 8,763 (aHR, 0.40) and 7,126 steps/day (aHR, 0.49), respectively. There was an independent relationship observed for increments from a low to an intermediate or a high cadence and risk reductions of all-cause mortality. There was no dose-response association seen with sex. After stratification for assessment device and wear location, the investigators found pronounced risk reductions for hip-worn accelerometers versus pedometers and wrist-worn accelerometers.

"These findings can extend contemporary physical activity prescriptions given the easy-to-understand concept of step count," the authors write.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

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Posted December 2023

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