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LOS ANGELES – Reaching the bar of 10,000 steps a day has become a standard health goal for many activity followers, but a new study suggests that it may not be necessary to To reach such a high number to see the benefits.
The recent study on older women published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine, found that women who walked about 4,400 steps a day were less likely to die than women who took about 2,700 steps a day.
The study also revealed that with more walks per day, death rates gradually decreased before stabilizing at around 7,500 steps per day, suggesting that these additional 2,500 steps might not be also necessary.
"These results can serve as an incentive for many sedentary individuals for whom 10,000 steps (per day) are an unattainable goal," the study says.
The average number of daily steps in the world is about 5,000, while the United States has an average of 4,800 daily steps, the study said.
The study is based on data after researchers followed 16,741 women, aged 62 to 101, for four years. Participants wore step markers for seven days to measure their number and intensity. In total, 504 women died in the group during this four-year period.
The intensity of a person's steps, nor the speed or slowness of their footsteps, did not seem to have any impact. The study found that the number of steps was the measure consistently badociated with a lower risk of death.
The study also points out that the common goal of 10,000 steps a day is often used as a default target on fitness trackers and smartphones. However, the origin of the number does not seem to have clear scientific reason.
The study found that the number probably comes from the name of a pedometer sold in 1965 in Japan, called "Manpo-kei", which translates to "10,000 steps" in Japanese.
Since the study focused only on mortality and not quality of life, there is still a lot of research to be done, said project author I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women & Hospital, New York Post.
"I think it's encouraging to be able to achieve important health benefits in fewer steps," Lee said. "But if you do 10,000 steps, you will have more power."
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