by Every additional step taken up to around 10,000 steps per day reduces the risk of death and cardiovascular disease (CVD), regardless of how much time is spent sitting or lying down, according to a large population-based study published in the journal ‘ British Journal of Sports Medicine.” Previous studies have shown that higher daily steps are associated with lower levels of death and cardiovascular disease, while other research has linked high levels of sedentary behavior to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death. However, none of them investigated whether greater physical activity can offset or reduce the risk of death and CVD associated with a more sedentary lifestyle. To address this perspective, the authors of this new study, led by the University of Sydney/Charles Center Perkins, accessed data from 72,174 people (average age 61 years; 58% women) enrolled in the UK Biobank study, a major biomedical database, who had worn an accelerometer device on their wrist for seven days to measure their activity. physical. Accelerometer data were used to estimate daily step count and time spent sedentary, that is, sitting or lying down while awake. The median daily steps of the participants was 6,222 steps/day, and 2,200 steps/day (the lowest 5% of daily steps among all participants) was taken as a reference point to evaluate the impact of increasing steps on death and CVD. The median sedentary time was 10.6 hours/day, so study participants who were sedentary for 10.5 hours/day or more were shown to have high sedentary time, while those who spent less than 10.5 hours/day sitting or lying down had a low sedentary time. During an average follow-up of 6.9 years, 1,633 deaths and 6,190 CVD events occurred. After taking into account other potentially influential factors, the authors calculated that the optimal number of steps per day to counteract high sedentary time was between 9,000 and 10,000 steps, which reduced the risk of mortality by 39% and the risk of CVD. . 21%. In both cases, 50% of the benefit was achieved between 4,000 and 4,500 steps/day. This is an observational study, so cause and effect cannot be established. And although the large sample size and long follow-up allowed us to reduce the risk of the session, the authors recognize the possibility that other unmeasured factors may have influenced their results. «Any number of daily steps above the reference 2,200 steps/day was complicated by lower mortality and risk of CVD incidence, both for low and high sedentary time. Accumulating between 9,000 and 10,000 steps/day optimally reduces the risk of mortality and incident CVD among very sedentary participants. The minimum threshold associated with substantially lower mortality and CVD risk was between 4,000 and 4,500 steps/day,” he concludes.
