The Study
Association of Step Volume and Intensity With All-Cause Mortality in Older Women.
This study shows that older women who walk more steps each day tend to live longer, but it doesn’t prove that walking more is why they live longer. It’s like noticing two things happen together, but we can’t say one causes the other.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Scientists looked at how many steps older women take every day and whether that affects how long they live. They also checked if walking faster matters.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 552 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes, walking more helps older women live longer, but only up to a point.
- 2After 7,500 steps, extra steps don’t seem to add more benefit.
- 3Women who walked about 4,400 steps a day had much lower risk of dying than those who walked only 2,700 steps.
- 4The benefit kept improving up to 7,500 steps, then stopped getting better.
- 5Walking faster didn’t help more once total steps were counted.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
JAMA internal medicine
Year
2019
Authors
I. Lee, E. Shiroma, M. Kamada, D. Bassett, C. Matthews, J. Buring
Related Content
Claims (6)
Older women who walk about 4,400 steps a day tend to live longer than those who walk only 2,700 steps. More walking is linked to lower risk of dying from any cause.
How fast you walk doesn't really matter for living longer - what matters is how many total steps you take each 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.
Walking about 7,500 steps a day helps older women live longer, but walking more than that doesn’t seem to add any extra benefit.
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 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.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.