We’ve banged on about the benefits of walking forever (yep, you don’t have to be a marathon runner to be fit).
And in this edited article from The Conversation, new research shows why we really should go the extra mile.
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In my practice as a GP, I have been impressed by a few energetic and active 80-year-olds who remain in good health while many their age have succumbed to various chronic diseases.
So in 2005, when the University of Newcastle established a large community-based health study of people aged 55 to 80, I made sure we recorded the participants’ physical activity in detail.
The inactive people (taking 4,500 steps per day) averaged 0.97 days of hospital care per year. The more active people (taking 8,800 steps per day) needed only 0.68 days of care per year.
We wondered if the causation might be running the opposite direction. That is, that sick people walk less rather than activity preventing illness. To test this idea, we repeated the analysis ignoring all hospital admissions in the first two years of follow-up to remove the immediate effects of serious illness.
Any activity is good for health, and the more the better.
The association extends right across the range of activity levels, showing any activity is good for health, and the more the better.
The participants in our study wore the pedometers from morning until night, so a lot of what we recorded as steps was general activity around the house or the workplace, not necessarily continuous walking. Recent research shows any that activity is better than sitting down, so even light activity is protective of health.
What if everyone got walking?
Let’s imagine for a moment that something changes the walking habits of all Australians, so everyone is walking at least 8,800 steps per day – maybe a combination of a Fitbit craze and an oil shortage that sends petrol to A$10 a litre. What effect would this have on health services?
Considering only the people aged over 55, at a minimum it would reduce the need for hospitalisation by 975,000 bed days per year, for a saving of $1.7 billion dollars. Given there are health benefits at other ages, and the less healthy Australians not represented in our study could benefit more, the actual benefit is likely to be even greater.
Walking 8,800 steps a day would cut 975,000 days of hospitalisation in people aged over 55.
An extra 4300 steps per day is not much. It’s just 40 minutes walking, which might include going to the shops, picking up kids, or taking the stairs at work. It doesn’t have to be “exercise”, although higher intensity activity for those who enjoy it has greater health benefits.
With governments searching for ways to reduce spending, and 16 per cent of the federal budget being spent on health, tackling physical inactivity of individual patients, as well as ensuring our urban centres are walking- and cycling-friendly would make a major difference.
The article was originally published in The Conversation.
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