Most studies on stepping look at the impact of the number of steps taken on health outcomes but a new study based on data from the UK Biobank investigated the health outcomes according to how long participants walked each day. There were 33,560 participants in the study all of whom walked less than 8,000 steps per day. As with most of this type of study, the stepping pattern was established at the beginning of the study and then the cardiovascular disease outcomes were recorded over the course of 7.9 years.
The researchers found an inverse relationship between the length of the longest walk taken per day and both cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality with the worst outcomes recorded for walks of 5 minutes or less and the best outcomes for walks of 15 minutes or more.
Walking less than 8,000 steps per day is below the recommended activity level but the interesting result here is that there is a health benefit of walking for longer even at this low step level.
Borja del Pozo Cruz, Matthew Ahmadi, Angelo Sabag, Pedro F. Saint Maurice, I-Min Lee, Emmanuel Stamatakis (2025). Step Accumulation Patterns and Risk for Cardiovascular Events and Mortality Among Suboptimally Active Adults. Annals of Internal Medicine https://doi.org/10.7326/ANNALS-25-01547.