Fast Walking Pace Linked to Reduced Mortality
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, July 29, 2025 -- Fast walking is associated with reduced mortality, according to a study published online July 29 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Lili Liu, M.P.H., from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues used data from the Southern Community Cohort Study, including information from nearly 85,000 mainly low-income and Black individuals recruited during 2002 to 2009, to examine the effect of walking pace on mortality.
The researchers found that 26,862 deaths occurred during a median follow-up of 16.7 years. All-cause mortality was significantly associated with daily fast walking time. A nearly 20 percent reduction in total mortality was seen in association with fast walking as little as 15 minutes a day, while there was only a 4 percent reduction in mortality seen in association with more than three hours of daily slow walking (hazard ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 0.81 [0.75 to 0.87] and 0.96 [0.91 to 1.00], respectively). Regardless of leisure-time physical activity levels, fast walking was independently associated with reduced mortality. A more pronounced inverse association was seen for mortality due to cardiovascular diseases than cancers. Compared with their generally healthy counterparts, participants with baseline comorbidities had larger risk reductions, but all individuals benefited from fast walking.
"Public health campaigns and community-based programs can emphasize the importance and availability of fast walking to improve health outcomes, providing resources and support to facilitate increased fast walking within all communities," Liu said in a statement. "Individuals should strive to incorporate more intense physical activity into their routines, such as brisk walking or other forms of aerobic exercise."
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.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted July 2025
Read this next
Prevention of 'Tongue Swallowing' in Resuscitation of Athletes Associated With Poor Prognosis
WEDNESDAY, July 30, 2025 -- Attempts to prevent "tongue swallowing" are common during bystander resuscitation of athletes with cardiac arrest and are associated with poor...
Optical Coherence Tomography Feasible for Imaging Inner Ear
WEDNESDAY, July 30, 2025 -- Imaging the inner ear during surgical procedures is feasible and allows detection of endolymphatic hydrops, according to a study published online July...
Model Developed for Predicting Missed Appointments in Primary Care
TUESDAY, July 29, 2025 -- The gradient boost model achieves the best performance for predicting no-shows and late cancellations in primary care practices, according to a study...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.