US Research Team: “11-Year Observation of Older Women…Walking More Reduces Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality Risk”
(SEOUL=Yonhap News) Reporter Joo-young Lee = A research finding has emerged that ‘how much you walk’ is more important to health than ‘how often you walk’.
In a study on older women, it was found that walking more than 4,000 steps daily, three times a week, can reduce mortality risk by up to 40%.
Dr. Rikuta Hamaya’s team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that they tracked and observed the relationship between daily step count and the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in over 13,000 older women.
The research team stated that even if older women walked more than 4,000 steps per day once or twice a week, the risks of death and cardiovascular disease decreased, and the more steps they took, the greater the effect. They confirmed that regardless of walking pattern, the daily step count plays a significant role in health benefits.
While many studies verify the importance of active physical activity in extending a healthy lifespan, the team emphasized the importance of understanding how much physical activity is necessary as one ages and the minimum level required for health.
In this study, they tracked the relationship between daily steps and the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in 13,547 women (average age 71.8), free from cardiovascular disease and cancer diagnosis, over an average of 11 years.
During 2011-2015, participants wore accelerometers to measure their steps over a week. Up to 2024, 1,765 participants (13%) died, and 781 (5%) were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.
The analysis showed that those who walked more than 4,000 steps on at least three days a week had a 40% lower overall mortality risk than those who did not walk even once. Those who walked on 1-2 days also had a 26% lower mortality risk.
The risk of death from cardiovascular disease was 27% lower in groups walking more than 4,000 steps on 1-2 days or three days compared to those who did not reach 4,000 steps at all.
Additionally, a daily average of over 5,000 steps resulted in about a 30% reduction in mortality risk, while 6,000-7,000 steps led to a 32-40% reduction, indicating that more steps gradually decreased mortality risk.
The research team stated, “This study shows that walking more than 4,000 steps a day, even once or twice a week, lowers the risk of death and cardiovascular disease,” and suggested, “This implies that step volume is more crucial to the health of the elderly than walking frequency.”
They added, “The practical implication of this finding is that there is no better or best walking pattern; rather, the total step volume is the key factor in health,” and suggested that “whether walking steadily every day or all at once fits one’s needs, engaging in physical activity can reduce death and cardiovascular disease risks.”
◆ Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine, Rikuta Hamaya et al., ‘Association between frequency of meeting daily step thresholds and all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease in older women’, https://bjsm.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bjsports-2025-110311