9,000 to 10,000 steps a day - does it really help with health ?

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Taking long walks amounting to 10,000 steps has long been cited in the media and in various health related publications as beneficial for reducing heart disease and improving general health, however the origin of this claim and the evidence behind it, has long been a mystery. One suggestion is that the source of this claim comes from a marketing campaign promoting pedometers - which seems very plausible. Specific evidence of the health benefits has been minimal.

One study has now been released by the University of Sydney and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This study involved 72,000 participants with an average age of 61 whom wore a movement tracking accelerometer on their wrists for one week. Over an average of 7 years, these participants were tracked and adjusting for factors relating to illness and death (diet, smoking, other forms of exercise), the optimal number of steps per day for a health benefit were between 9,000 and 10,000. This number of steps was calculated to provide a 39 % lower risk of dying duirng the follow-up period (the 7 years) and a 21 % lower risk of a heart-related incident. Happy walking !

Link to the article: British Journal of Sport Medicine