In a recent study, from British Journal of Sports Medicine, analyzing data from the UK Biobank, researchers have unveiled the striking impact of daily step count on health outcomes, shedding light on the optimal thresholds for reducing all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

Over nearly seven years of follow-up involving 72,174 participants, where there were 1633 deaths and 6190 CVD events, they found that compared to a reference point of 2200 steps/day (the 5th percentile), the magic number for slashing all-cause mortality hovers between 9000 and 10,500 steps/day for both low and high sedentary time. For incident CVD, the sweet spot is around 9700 steps/day, regardless of sedentary time levels.

Interestingly, any step count above 2200/day was linked with a decreased risk of mortality and incident CVD, emphasizing the pivotal role of physical activity in overall health. Even more compelling, maintaining a daily step count between 9000 and 10,500 steps/day demonstrated the lowest mortality risk, regardless of sedentary time.

However, there’s a twist—those with lower sedentary time enjoyed a lower risk of incident CVD compared to their counterparts with higher sedentary time, even with a similar step count.

Clearly, being active is a very important part of general health and wellbeing. The study shows that while step counts are important metrics, our overall lifestyle should be as little sedentary as possible.

Just start walking at every opportunity you can: park farther from the store, take the stairs, get it yourself instead of asking someone to do it for you, do chores you know you’ll enjoy the results from, etc.

MN Ahmadi et al. Do the associations of daily steps with mortality and incident cardiovascular disease differ by sedentary time levels? A device-based cohort study. British Journal of Sports Medicine (2024). https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-107221