Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Walking an extra 1,000 steps every day might cut your chance of dying from any cause by 15% — it’s like a little more walking helps you live longer.
Correlational
The more you walk every day, the longer you might live — especially if you're already healthy or at risk for heart problems. Even small increases in steps can help, with benefits growing as you walk more than about 2,300 steps a day.
For older women, how many steps they take each day matters more for heart health than how often they hit 4,000 steps in a day.
If older women walk more steps each day—like 5,000 to 7,000 or more—even just a few days a week, they tend to live longer, and the more often they hit those step goals, the better their odds.
Older women who walk more steps each day have lower death risk, but only up to about 7,000 steps—walking more than that doesn’t seem to help much more.
For older women, it’s not how often you hit step goals during the week that matters most—it’s the total number of steps you take every day that really counts for staying healthy and lowering the risk of heart problems or early death.
If women in their 60s or older walk at least 4,000 steps just one or two days a week, they tend to live longer and have fewer heart problems compared to women who don’t walk that much at all.
Walking more every day is linked to living longer and having a healthier heart, and you get the biggest benefits just by going from very few steps to a moderate amount — after that, more walking still helps, but less and less each time.
Walking more every day is linked to a lower chance of dying from heart problems. Every extra 500 steps you take daily may cut your risk by 7%, and the more you walk, the better the protection—starting from as little as 2,300 steps a day.
Quantitative
Walking more every day is linked to living longer — every extra 1,000 steps you take is tied to a 15% lower chance of dying from any cause, especially once you pass about 3,900 steps a day.
For women who've had cancer and gone through menopause, walking about 5,000 to 6,000 steps a day gives the biggest drop in risk of dying from any cause — and walking more doesn't seem to help much more.
For women who've had cancer and gone through menopause, exercising hard for about an hour a day helps lower their risk of dying — but doing more than that doesn't seem to help much extra.
Sitting too much might raise the risk of dying from heart problems in women who’ve gone through menopause and survived cancer. Every extra hour and 42 minutes of sitting per day could increase that risk by 30%.
Walking more every day might help lower the chance of dying from heart disease in women who’ve gone through menopause and survived cancer.
Sitting too much every day might raise the risk of dying from any cause in women who’ve gone through menopause and survived cancer—even if they’re active otherwise.
For women who’ve gone through menopause and survived cancer, moving more every day — like walking or doing light exercise — seems to help them live longer. Every extra 96 minutes of movement a day is linked to an 11% lower chance of dying from any cause.
Right now, studies about how walking more affects how long people live don't all report things the same way and might be biased, so we can't fully trust what we know—scientists need to start using more consistent methods.
Descriptive
How walking every day affects your risk of dying can depend on who you are, how steps are measured, and where you live — it's not the same for everyone, everywhere.
Walking more every day might help adults live longer, so counting steps could be a good way for public health programs to encourage people to move more.
Walking more every day is linked to living longer for most adults, but how we measure steps and who we study can change how strong that link looks.
Walking more every day, especially between 8,000 and 10,000 steps, is linked to a lower risk of dying and a longer life.
Older women who walk less than 2700 steps a day may have a higher chance of dying from any cause compared to those who walk at least 4400 steps daily.
For older women, walking faster or with more intensity doesn't seem to lower the risk of death more than just hitting a total number of steps per day.
Older women who walk about 4,400 steps a day tend to live longer than those who walk only 2,700 steps, and walking more helps up to about 7,500 steps — after that, walking even more doesn’t seem to lower the risk of dying any further.