Study says walking four miles once or twice a week reduces risk of death

The health benefits of walking 8.000 steps or more once or twice a week seem even more pronounced for people age 65 and older.

Walking 8.000 steps, or nearly 6,4 miles, once or twice a week significantly reduces the risk of premature death, according to a study published Tuesday.

While regular physical activity is known to reduce the risk of mortality, the study published in the journal JAMA Network Open looks at the health benefits of brisk walking just a few days a week.

Researchers at Kyoto University and the University of California, Los Angeles analyzed data from 3.101 US adults.

Scientists found that those who walked 8.000 steps or more once or twice a week were 14,9% less likely to die over a 10-year period than those who didn't.

For those who took these long walks between three and seven times a week, the risk of death dropped even further, at 16,5%.

The health benefits of walking 8.000 steps or more once or twice a week seem even more pronounced for people age 65 and older.

"The number of days per week someone walks 8.000 steps or more was associated [in the study] with a lower risk of cardiovascular mortality and all other causes," the scientists noted.

"This work suggests that individuals can derive significant health benefits from walking just a few days a week," they added.

For this study, researchers analyzed the daily steps taken by participants between 2005 and 2006 and then studied their mortality ten years later.

Of the participants, 632 people failed to reach the 8.000-step threshold on at least one day of the week, 532 people reached or exceeded that threshold once or twice a week, and 1.937 people took it between three and seven times a week.

 



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