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According to an American study, older women who walk enough each day to travel the equivalent of two miles, far less than the five-mile goal set by many Americans, could live even longer than their peers. less active counterparts.
Many people who try to achieve a healthy weight and stay in shape set a daily goal of 10,000 steps, or about five miles, often because they use a fitness monitor with this target, write researchers in JAMA Internal Medicine.
But there is no strong evidence that this goal is right for everyone, nor is it clear how much intensity or speed is important to counting the health benefits of each step, the authors note. .
In the present study, nearly 17,000 women aged around 70 were wearing accelerometers for at least four days to track their daily steps and the intensity of their movements. Overall, participants traveled on average 5,499 daily steps, or about 2.5 miles.
During an average follow-up period of 4.3 years, 504 women died. Compared to women who did not register more than 2,718 steps per day, women who completed at least 4,363 steps a day were 41% less likely to die.
"Even a modest number of stages is badociated with lower mortality," said Dr. I-Min Lee, lead author of the study at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Boston Hospital.
"More daily steps have been badociated with even lower mortality rates up to about 7,500 steps / day, beyond which no further decline has been observed," Lee said by email. "The rate of progression did not matter in these older women, it was the number of marches that mattered."
Accelerometer data showed that women reached an average peak intensity of 92 steps per minute, at one minute, and an average intensity of 58 steps, at 30 minutes, of 30 minutes. A walking rate of 2.5 km / hour corresponds to about 100 steps per minute.
Although the intensity initially appeared to be badociated with lower mortality risk, this link disappeared once the researchers also took into account the total number of daily steps recorded by women. This suggests that the volume of steps, rather than the intensity, may be more important for longevity in older women.
At the beginning of the study, women were on average 72 years old.
While wearing accelerometers, women spent 51% of their time taking no steps and 46% moving at a rate not exceeding 39 steps per minute.
Women spent only 3% of their time traveling at a pace of at least 40 steps per minute, a speed that suggests a more determined effort.
The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how the number or intensity of daily steps could have a direct impact on the risk of women's deaths. Nor can it be said whether healthier women were more likely than less healthy peers to be active, which might partly explain the link between a higher number of steps and lower mortality.
One of the limitations of the study is that researchers measured women's movements only once, at the beginning of the study period, and their habits may have changed over time.
Nevertheless, the results are "good news for older people who may have difficulty walking faster," said Keith Diaz, a researcher at Columbia University Medical Center in New York who did not participate in the study. 39; study.
"Any walk is better than nothing," Diaz said by e-mail. "Even with small steps, your risk of death will be greatly reduced."
"For those who have difficulty walking, other research shows that any form of aerobic activity provides health benefits," added Diaz. "Swimming, cycling, bent arm or any other form of continuous activity will be beneficial to health."
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