For people who spend long hours at a desk, new research offers encouraging news. A study from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre (Australia) suggests that increasing your daily step count may help reduce the health risks linked to prolonged sitting.
The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, are based on data from more than 72,000 individuals. Researchers found that each increase in daily steps, up to about 10,000 steps per day, was associated with a lower risk of death (39 percent) and cardiovascular disease (21 percent). These benefits were seen regardless of how much time participants spent sitting.
Why Daily Steps Matter for Health
Earlier research has already linked higher step counts with lower risks of death and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Other studies have shown that spending long periods sitting can raise those same risks. What makes this study different is that it directly examined whether walking more could help counteract the negative effects of sedentary behavior, using objective data from wearable devices.
Lead author and research fellow, Dr. Matthew Ahmadi, emphasized that walking is not a complete solution to excessive sitting. “This is by no means a get out of jail card for people who are sedentary for excessive periods of time, however, it does hold an important public health message that all movement matters and that people can and should try to offset the health consequences of unavoidable sedentary time by upping their daily step count.”
Senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub at the Charles Perkins Centre, highlighted the broader impact of this type of research. Studies that rely on wearable devices are opening new possibilities for understanding and improving public health.
“Step count is a tangible and easily understood measure of physical activity that can help people in the community, and indeed health professionals, accurately monitor physical activity. We hope this evidence will inform the first generation of device-based physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines, which should include key recommendations on daily stepping,” said Professor Stamatakis.
How Researchers Measured Steps and Sitting Time
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed information from 72,174 participants (average age 61; 58% female) in the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database. Each participant wore an accelerometer on their wrist for seven days, allowing researchers to track both step count and sedentary time, defined as time spent sitting or lying down while awake.
The team then monitored participants’ health over time by linking their data to hospital records and death registries.
Participants averaged 6222 steps per day. The lowest activity group, defined as those taking about 2200 steps per day (the lowest 5 percent of daily steps among all participants), served as the baseline for comparison.
On average, participants spent 10.6 hours per day sedentary. Those with 10.5 hours or more of sedentary time were classified as highly sedentary, while those below that threshold were considered less sedentary.
To improve accuracy, researchers excluded individuals with poor health, those who were underweight, or anyone who experienced a major health event within two years of follow-up. They also adjusted for factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, diet, and family history of CVD and cancer.
Step Count Linked to Lower Risk of Death and Heart Disease
Over an average follow-up period of 6.9 years, there were 1633 deaths and 6190 cases of cardiovascular disease among participants.
After accounting for various influencing factors, researchers identified a clear pattern. The greatest reduction in risk was seen among those taking between 9000 and 10000 steps per day. At this level, the risk of death dropped by 39 percent, and the risk of cardiovascular disease decreased by 21 percent.
Importantly, significant benefits appeared well below that range. About half of the total risk reduction was achieved with just 4000 to 4500 steps per day.
Study Limitations and Key Takeaway
Because this was an observational study, it cannot prove cause and effect. While the large sample size and long follow-up strengthen the findings, the researchers note that unmeasured factors could still play a role. They also point out that step counts and sedentary time were measured at a single point, which may introduce some bias.
Even so, the overall message is clear. Increasing daily steps is linked to lower risks of death and cardiovascular disease, even for people who spend much of their day sitting.
As the authors conclude, “Any amount of daily steps above the referent 2200 steps/day was associated with lower mortality and incident CVD risk, for low and high sedentary time. Accruing between 9000 and 10,000 steps a day optimally lowered the risk of mortality and incident CVD among highly sedentary participants.”
