You don’t necessarily have to accept “death by chair.” Getting up and walking more during the day may help reduce health risks linked to spending too much time sitting.
A University of Sydney study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined data from more than 72,000 people.
Researchers found that higher daily step counts were associated with lower risks of death and cardiovascular disease.
The benefits increased up to about 10,000 steps daily. At 9,000 to 10,000 steps, the risk of death was about 39 percent lower, while cardiovascular disease risk was about 21 percent lower.
Importantly, the results appeared regardless of how long participants spent sitting.
Walking and Sedentary Time
The study focused on whether walking could offset some risks associated with sedentary behavior.
Instead of asking people to estimate their activity, researchers used wrist-worn devices to measure steps and sedentary time.
Lead author Dr. Matthew Ahmadi cautioned that walking isn’t a complete solution for excessive sitting. Still, adding movement throughout the day may help counter some negative effects.
Even modest increases in activity could be useful, including movement during otherwise unavoidable sitting, such as driving.
How the Walking Study Worked
Researchers analyzed 72,174 UK Biobank participants. Their average age was 61, and 58 percent were women.
Participants wore accelerometers for seven days. The devices recorded daily steps and time spent sitting or lying awake.
The average person walked 6,222 steps daily and spent 10.6 hours sedentary.
Those averaging about 2,200 steps were used as the comparison group. Researchers also separated participants into higher- and lower-sedentary groups, using 10.5 hours per day as the cutoff.
The analysis accounted for factors including age, sex, education, smoking, alcohol, diet and family history.
Daily Steps and Health Risks
Over nearly seven years, researchers recorded 1,633 deaths and 6,190 cardiovascular disease cases.
The biggest reductions appeared among people taking 9,000 to 10,000 steps each day.
But reaching 10,000 steps wasn’t necessary to see benefits. About half of the overall risk reduction occurred around 4,000 to 4,500 daily steps.
That makes the findings encouraging for people who aren’t able or willing to walk all day.
Study Limitations
This was an observational study, so it cannot establish that walking itself caused the lower risks.
Healthier people may naturally walk more, for example, while other unmeasured factors could also influence the results.
Another limitation is that activity was measured only once. That snapshot may not accurately reflect someone’s habits over many years.
Still, the overall finding is simple: more daily steps were associated with lower risks of death and cardiovascular disease, even among people who spent substantial time sitting.
