Need 2 Know
The faster you walk, the better for long term health – especially as you age By Emmanuel Stamatakis
S
ome of us like to stroll along and smell the roses, while others march to their destination as quickly as their feet will carry them. A new study out today has found those who report faster walking have lower risk of premature death. We studied just over 50,000 walkers over 30 years of age who lived in Britain between 1994 and 2008. We collected data on these walkers, including how quickly they think they Available from Rangitawa Publishing,
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walk, and we then looked at their health outcomes (after controlling to make sure the results weren’t due to poor health or other habits such as smoking and exercise). We found any pace above slow reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, such as heart disease or stroke. Compared to slow walkers, average pace walkers had a 20% lower risk of early death from any cause, and a 24% lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke. Read more: Is walking enough exercise? We asked five experts Those who reported walking at a brisk or fast pace had a 24% lower risk of early death from any cause and a 21% lower risk of death from cardiovascular causes. We also found the beneficial effects of fast walking were more pronounced in older age groups. For
24 Walking New Zealand, issue no 283 - 2021
example, average pace walkers aged 60 years or over experienced a 46% reduction in risk of death from cardiovascular causes, and fast walkers experienced a 53% reduction. Compared to slow walkers, brisk or fast walkers aged 45-59 had 36% lower risk of early death from any cause. In these older age groups (but not in the whole sample or the younger age groups), we also found there was a linearly higher reduction in the risk of early death the higher the pace. What it all means Our results suggest walking at an average, brisk or fast pace may be beneficial for long term health and longevity compared to slow walking, particularly for older people. But we also need to be mindful our study was observational, and we did not have full control of all likely influences to be able to establish it www.walkingnewzealand.co.nz
