Beneficial Daily Steps Independent of Sedentary Time

A prospective dose–response analysis of total daily steps with all-cause mortality and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) by sedentary time levels revealed that any number of daily steps above 2200 steps/day was associated with lower mortality and incident CVD risk, with 9000–10 500 steps/day being associated with the lowest mortality risk independent of sedentary time. The analysis included 72 174 UK participants (age=61.1±7.8 years), 1633 deaths and 6190 CVD events over 6.9 (±0.8) years of follow-up. Compared with the referent 2200 steps/day (5th percentile), the optimal dose for all-cause mortality ranged between 9000 and 10 500 steps/day for high (≥10.5 hours/day, HR 0.61) and low (<10.5 hours/day, HR 0.69) sedentary time. For incident CVD, there was a subtle gradient of association by sedentary time level with the lowest risk observed at approximately 9700 steps/day for high (HR 0.79) and low (HR 0.71) sedentary time. For a roughly equivalent number of steps/day, the risk of incident CVD was lower for low sedentary time compared with high sedentary time. The minimal dose (50% of the optimal dose) of daily steps was between 4000 and 4500 steps/day across sedentary time groups for all-cause mortality and incident CVD. The findings provide tangible targets and new insights regarding the dose response of daily steps, sedentary time, mortality, and CVD risk. Source: https://bjsm.bmj.com/