500 extra steps per day could reduce CV risk for adults 70 years and older

Well, I'm already doing 7300 steps a day. Do I have to increase that 500 steps each day ad infinitum? Soon I won't have enough time per day to get those steps in.

500 extra steps per day could reduce CV risk for adults 70 years and older

For every 500 extra steps per day, or an additional one-quarter mile walked, adults aged 70 years or older could reduce risk for a CVD event by approximately 14%, a speaker reported.

The results of a substudy from the ARIC cohort were presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023.

For every 500 extra steps per day, or an additional one-quarter mile walked, adults aged 70 years or older could reduce risk for a CVD event by approximately 14%.
Image: Shutterstock

“Steps are an easy way to measure physical activity, and more daily steps were associated with a lower risk of having a cardiovascular disease-related event in older adults,” Erin E. Dooley, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, said in a press release. “However, most studies have focused on early-to-midlife adults with daily goals of 10,000 or more steps, which may not be attainable for older individuals.”

To assess whether more daily steps were associated with lower risk for proximal CVD events among older adults, Dooley and colleagues evaluated an ARIC study subgroup of 452 participants who wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X) on the waist 3 days or more for 10 hours or more per day (mean age, 78.4 years; 59% women; 20% Black). Participants were stratified into quartiles based on daily steps. Outcomes of interest included fatal and nonfatal CVD events, defined as CHD, stroke and HF.

During 1,269 person-years of follow-up, mean daily step count was 1,796 steps and approximately 7.5% of participants experienced a CVD event.

Compared with the 3.5% of participants in the highest quartile of daily steps ( 4,453 steps per day), the 11.5% of participants in the lowest quartile of daily steps (< 2,077 steps per day) had higher incidence of cumulative CVD events.

The speaker reported that every 500 extra steps per day — translating to approximately one-quarter of a mile — was associated with a 14% decreased risk for a CVD event (HR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76-0.98).

Compared with participants in the lowest quartile of daily steps, those in the highest quartile had an approximately 77% decreased risk for a proximal CVD event (HR = 0.23; 95% CI, 0.07-0.83), according to the presentation.

“It’s important to maintain physical activity as we age; however, daily step goals should also be attainable. We were surprised to find that every additional quarter of a mile, or 500 steps, of walking had such a strong benefit to heart health,” Dooley said in the release. “While we do not want to diminish the importance of higher-intensity physical activity, encouraging small increases in the number of daily steps also has significant cardiovascular benefits. If you are an older adult over the age of 70, start with trying to get 500 more steps per day.”

Reference:

• For older adults, every 500 additional steps taken daily associated with lower heart risk. newsroom.heart.org/news/for-older-adults-every-500-additional-steps-taken-daily-associated-with-lower-heart-risk. Published March 2, 2023. Accessed March 2, 2023.