500 Extra Steps A Day May Lower Heart Disease Risk By 14% For Older Adults

Although the 10,000-step daily goal is gaining popularity around the globe, a study indicates that a considerably lower daily step threshold is necessary to prevent heart disease.

An extra 500 steps per day, or an extra quarter mile, of walking was linked to a 14% decreased risk of heart disease, stroke, or heart failure, according to the study of persons aged 70 and older.

According to the study, those who walked about 4,500 steps per day had a 77% lower observed risk of having a cardiovascular incident than adults who walked less than 2,000 steps per day. Just roughly 3.5% of participants who walked 4,500 or more steps per day experienced a cardiovascular incident throughout the course of the 3.5-year follow-up period, as opposed to 11.5% of those who took fewer than 2,000 steps per day.

"Steps are an easy way to measure physical activity, and more daily steps were associated with a lower risk of having a cardiovascular disease-related event in older adults," said Erin E. Dooley, Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and lead researcher of the study.

"However, most studies have focused on early-to-midlife adults with daily goals of 10,000 or more steps, which may not be attainable for older individuals."

Those over the age of 70 were urged by Dr. Dooley to start by attempting to take 500 additional steps each day. The study participants were drawn from a larger study sample of 15,792 people who were originally enrolled in a broader, continuing investigation.