10,000 Step Myth?

Some say that the 10,000 step per day guideline is a myth, because it was built on bad science. But, as far as we know, it was built on no science — likely originating with a Japanese marketing slogan for a pedometer in the 1960s, literally translated as ’10,000 steps meter’.

More slogan than science — at first.

Following a cohort of over 2,000 free-living adults in Australia between 2000 and 2005, researchers discovered that increasing baseline daily steps from sedentary to 10,000 steps a day was associated with nearly a 50% lower risk of mortality a decade later.¹

In another study, steps were measured in cohort of nearly 17,000 older adult women over 7 days. The risk of dying when followed up 4 years later decreased with higher steps per day, cutting risk in half by 5,000 steps, leveling off at around 7,500 steps and maintaining this lower risk through 10,000 steps per day.²

Most recently, an observational study of accelerometer-measured steps per day in nearly 5,000 adults showed a similar trend of mortality rate 10 years later.³ We see the big drop to about 5,000 steps, then turning the corner around 7,500 steps, beginning to level off at 10,000 steps, fully leveling out by 12,000 steps per day. Similar findings were seen with mortality rate from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Since its not-so-scientific origin, it appears that the 10,000 steps per day for risk of disease and premature death is now more science than slogan. Also, in pursuit of the 10,000 step per day science, we have discovered that benefits can be experienced with much less — with 30-minutes of physical activity translating to 3,000-4,000 steps, 5,000 steps per day moving us out of an inactive category, and giving us a healthy, active goal of at least 7,500 steps per day.⁴

References

1. Dwyer, T., Pezic, A., Sun, C., Cochrane, J., Venn, A., Srikanth, V., ... & Blair, S. (2015). Objectively measured daily steps and subsequent long term all-cause mortality: The Tasped Prospective Cohort Study. PloS one, 10(11).
2. Lee, I. M., Shiroma, E. J., Kamada, M., Bassett, D. R., Matthews, C. E., & Buring, J. E. (2019). Association of step volume and intensity with all-cause mortality in older women. JAMA internal medicine, 179(8), 1105-1112.
3. Saint-Maurice, P. F., Troiano, R. P., Bassett, D. R., Graubard, B. I., Carlson, S. A., Shiroma, E. J., ... & Matthews, C. E. (2020). Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults. Jama, 323(12), 1151-1160.
4. Tudor-Locke, C., Craig, C. L., Brown, W. J., Clemes, S. A., De Cocker, K., Giles-Corti, B., ... & Oppert, J. M. (2011). How many steps/day are enough? For adults. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 8(1), 79.