A new study found that walking 7,000 steps per day led to meaningful improvements in health outcomes, suggesting people may not need to reach the often-cited 10,000 steps benchmark.
The research, published in The Lancet, indicates that this lower step count could be a more achievable target for many people while still providing significant health benefits.
Walking helps improve cognitive functions, mental health and physical functions, according to the study.
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Compared with those who walked 2,000 steps a day, the study found that 7,000 steps was linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (down 25%), cancer (down 6%), dementia (down 38%) and depression (down 22%).
However, the researchers, based in Australia and Europe, said some of those figures could be less accurate than others since they come from a small number of studies and don't factor in things like age and individual analysis.
The study found that even just a modest daily step count of around 4,000 was linked to better health compared to very low activity of 2,000 steps a day.
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Physical activity is known to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and premature death.
For those already reaching 10,000 steps daily, researchers encourage continuing that habit.
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