Fast walk 15 minutes a day reduces the risk of death

Walk fast For 15 minutes a day reduces the risk of death, according to a study of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (USA).

This statement has special value since walking at a light pace is a “comfortable, accessible and low impact activity that people of all ages and physical condition can make to improve general health and, in particular, cardiovascular health,” says the professor of Medicine Anne Potter Wilson, Director of the Epidemiology Center of Vanderbilt Zheng and main aouctor of this study, Wei Zheng.

The research published in the ‘American Journal of Preventive Medicine‘Analyzed data from Cohort study of the South Community (SCCS), which registered some 85,000 participants between 40 and 79 years between 2002 and 2009. The participants provided reference information, including daily rhythm and walking time, demographic and lifestyle factors, and medical history, through structured questionnaires.

Likewise, cohort was linked to National Death Index To obtain information about the vital state and the cause of death until December 31, 2022. During an average follow -up of 16.7 years, 26,862 deaths occurred.

Thus, the researchers found that walking fast, even for 15 minutes a day, was associated with a reduction of almost 20 percent in total mortality. However, Walking slowly for more than three hours a day was associated with a smaller reduction in mortality. Likewise, the benefit of rapid walking remained considerable even after considering other lifestyle factors, such as physical activity in free time.

In addition to reducing premature death for all causes, the study indicates that walking quickly reduced mortality, specifically by cardiovascular diseasesthe main cause of death in the United States. In this sense, the researchers suggested that walking rapid could reduce cardiovascular mortality by improving efficiency and cardiac performance, and reducing the prevalence of obesity and its associated cardiovascular risks, such as hypertension and high cholesterol.

The authors recognize that the self -declared data on the daily walk could have included other types of physical activity, which could generate classification errors. In addition, physical activity data were only collected at the beginning of the study, so the changes could not be considered over time. However, the long follow -up of the study and the wide size of the sample contribute to obtain solid and reliable estimatesthey point out.