Inverse association was stronger for mortality due to cardiovascular diseases than cancer
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, July 29, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Fast walking is associated with reduced mortality, according to a study published online July 29 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Lili Liu, M.P.H., from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues used data from the Southern Community Cohort Study, including information from nearly 85,000 mainly low-income and Black individuals recruited during 2002 to 2009, to examine the effect of walking pace on mortality.
The researchers found that 26,862 deaths occurred during a median follow-up of 16.7 years. All-cause mortality was significantly associated with daily fast walking time. A nearly 20 percent reduction in total mortality was seen in association with fast walking as little as 15 minutes a day, while there was only a 4 percent reduction in mortality seen in association with more than three hours of daily slow walking (hazard ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 0.81 [0.75 to 0.87] and 0.96 [0.91 to 1.00], respectively). Regardless of leisure-time physical activity levels, fast walking was independently associated with reduced mortality. A more pronounced inverse association was seen for mortality due to cardiovascular diseases than cancers. Compared with their generally healthy counterparts, participants with baseline comorbidities had larger risk reductions, but all individuals benefited from fast walking.
“Public health campaigns and community-based programs can emphasize the importance and availability of fast walking to improve health outcomes, providing resources and support to facilitate increased fast walking within all communities,” Liu said in a statement. “Individuals should strive to incorporate more intense physical activity into their routines, such as brisk walking or other forms of aerobic exercise.”
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