The results of a 10-year study by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) have been announced. An extra 10 minutes of walking every day extends life; significantly reduces mortality rates.
A new study by the U.S. National Cancer Institute has found that walking an extra 10 minutes each day can add years to life.
Research on more than 5,000 middle-aged and elderly U.S. citizens found that as exercise levels increased, the risk of dying from any cause decreased.
Just 10 minutes of extra walking a day was found to reduce the mortality rate between the ages of 40 and 85 by 7 per cent a year.
10 minutes extra walking every day: Mortality rates down to 17 percent
Researchers estimate that small lifestyle change can save more than 100,000 lives in the U.S. each year.
According to research from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), increasing exercise by 20 minutes or 30 minutes a day means that deaths fall by 13 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Lead author Dr Pedro Saint-Maurice stressed that the findings could encourage older adults to increase their activity.
“As far as we know, this study is the first to estimate the number of preventable deaths among adults through physical activity using accelerometer based measurements,” Saint-Maurice said.
“7 percent of deaths can be prevented”
The researchers examined the health records and mortality rates of nearly 5,000 participants between the ages of 40 and 85, who were collected from a national database to find out if small increases in activity levels prevented deaths.
Increasing physical activity by 10 minutes a day would prevent 111,174 deaths a year (6.9 percent) across the U.S. population, according to estimates published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Results of a 10-year walking survey:
A total of 4,840 participants (mean age, 56.8 years; 2435 [54%] women; 1732 [36%] people with obesity] used accelerometers for an average of 14.4 hours per day and an average of 5.7 days. The average number of steps per day was 9124. The average 10.1-year follow-up resulted in 1,165 deaths, including 406 KVH and 283 cancer deaths.
Incidence intensity not adjusted for mortality due to all causes;
- For 655 people who take less than 4,000 steps per day, it is 76.7 per 1,000 people-years (419 deaths);
- 21.4 (488 deaths) per 1,000 people-year for 1,727 people who take 4,000 to 7,999 steps a day;
- 6.9 (176 deaths) per 1,000 people-years for 1,539 people who took 8,000 to 11,999 steps a day;
- 4.8 (82 deaths) per 1,000 people-years for 919 people taking at least 12,000 steps per day.
Compared to taking 4,000 steps per day, taking 8,000 steps a day was associated with significantly lower mortality (HR, 0.49 [95% GA, 0.44-0.55]) and 12,000 steps per day (HR, 0.35 % [ 95% GA, 0.28-0.45]).
Uneven incision intensity for all causes of death according to the highest 30 cadences;
- For 1,080 people who took 18.5 to 56.0 steps per minute, it was 32.9 per 1,000 people-years (406 deaths);
- 12.6 (207 deaths) per 1,000 people-years for 1,153 people who took 56.1 to 69.2 steps per minute;
- 6.8 (124 deaths) per 1,000 people per year for 1,074 people taking 69.3 to 82.8 steps per minute;
- 5.3 (108 deaths) per 1,000 people per year for 1,037 people taking 82.9 to 149.5 steps per minute.
Higher step density was not significantly associated with a lower mortality rate after adjustment for total daily steps (for example, highest against the lowest quarter of the top 30 cadences: HR, 0.90 [95% GA, 0.65-1.27]; P value for trend = .34)
Sources:
- Pedro F. Saint-Maurice, Barry I. Graubard, et al. Estimated Number of Deaths Prevented Through Increased Physical Activity Among US Adults. JAMA Intern Med. Published online January 24, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.7755 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2788473
- Pedro F Saint-Maurice, Richard P Troiano, et al. Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults. Published online October 30, 2021. PMID: 32207799 PMCID: PMC7093766 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.1382 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32207799/