Walking further and faster is linked to a reduced risk of heart attacks, heart failure and stroke in people with high blood pressure. Even walking fewer than 10,000 steps a day reduced the risk, according to the authors.

The researchers analyzed data from 32,192 people who had enrolled in a sub-study of the UK Biobank study. They had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and agreed to wear an accelerometer on their wrist for seven consecutive days to measure how far and how fast they walked. Data from the accelerometers were collected between 2013 and 2015. Participants’ average age was 64 and they were followed up for nearly eight years, providing the researchers with data for 283,001 person-years. During this time 1,935 cases of heart problems or stroke occurred.

Compared to a daily step count of 2,300 steps, every extra 1,000 steps daily, up to 10,000, was associated with a 17% reduction in overall risk of developing a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE), up to 10,000 steps. Additional steps above 10,000 were associated with a lower risk of stroke.

In addition to a 17% reduction in overall risk for every extra 1,000 steps a day, the researchers found a 22% reduction in heart failure, 9% reduction in risk of heart attack, and 24% reduction in risk of stroke. This means that every increase of 1,000 steps a day was associated with:

• an average reduction in the absolute risk of MACE of 31.5 events per 10,000 person-years
• an average reduction in the absolute risk of 7.2 heart failure events per 10,000 person-years
• an average reduction in the absolute risk of 9.9 heart attacks per 10,000 person-years
• an average reduction in the absolute risk of 10.4 strokes per 10,000 person-years.

The average intensity of the 30 minutes of fastest walking per day was 80 steps a minute and this was associated with a 30% reduced risk of MACE. There was no evidence of harm in people whose 30 minutes of fastest walking or running was over 130 steps a minute.

The researchers found similar results when they looked at 37,350 people without high blood pressure. Every 1,000-step increase in daily step count led to an average lower risk of MACE, heart failure, heart attacks and stroke of 20.2%, 23.2%, 17.9%, and 24.6%, respectively.

“Clinicians should promote physical activity as standard care, especially in patients with high blood pressure,” said principal author Emmanuel Stamatakis of the University of Sydney, Australia.”

To download the study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, click here