A well-known rule of thumb is that you should walk 10,000 steps a day. The number goes back to an advertising campaign, but also corresponds to the state of research – for adults up to 60 years of age.
Senior citizens can stop at 8000 steps at the latest: Apparently even more does not bring them any additional years of life. This is the result of a meta-analysis published in the Lancet Public Health by an international research team led by Amanda Paluch from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
The group evaluated data from more than 47,000 subjects who came from Europe, the USA and Asia, among other places. On average, people walked 6,500 steps a day; half managed more, the other half less. At the end of the longitudinal studies, which lasted around seven years on average, around 3,000 people had died.
Men and women alike were less likely to do this the more steps they walked—up to a certain point. This optimum depended on age: Under the age of 60, 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day were required, and then the risk of death did not decrease with increasing number of steps. From the age of 60, 6000 to 8000 steps were enough.
Older people apparently need significantly fewer steps than the frequently mentioned 10,000, write the researchers. A study at Harvard Medical School had already come to a similar conclusion for women: The subjects, on average in their early 70s, reached their optimum at 7500 steps a day. The following applied: the fewer steps they took, the fewer years they could expect to live.
A quarter of an hour more exercise a day could be worthwhile for those who don’t like to walk. Mortality in the 3600-5800 step group was 40 percent lower than that in the up to 3600 step group; with even more steps it was around 50 percent less.
As early as 2020, a representative long-term study in the USA calculated that in the group of those who walked around 8000 steps a day, only half as many died within ten years as among those with a workload of 4000 steps – regardless of overweight and previous illnesses. In particular, the risk of succumbing to cardiovascular disease fell significantly as the number of steps increased. Studies have repeatedly shown that just 1,000 more steps a day can reduce the risk of death.
The pace does not seem to play a major role, but the data are still ambiguous, as the researchers write. It is difficult to separate the effects of the number of steps and pace, because those who run faster usually also take more steps.
However, it is considered certain that a lot of exercise prolongs life: Those who enjoy running have even more life ahead of them than those who do not run, even if both are equally healthy or ill. However, a reverse causality cannot be completely ruled out; a reduced willingness to run could also be an early warning sign of incipient physical degradation.
The original of this article “Study reveals: In old age, 8000 steps a day are enough for longer life” comes from Spektrum.de.
