The optimal number of steps reported in prior studies ranged from 4,400 to 10,000 steps per day. Notably, excessive sedentary time—defined as prolonged sitting or lying down while awake—has been associated with elevated risks of death, cardiovascular events, type 2 diabetes, and cancer-related mortality.
The recent study, encompassing 72,174 participants from the UK Biobank study with an average age of 61 and 58% female, employed wrist-worn accelerometers to monitor physical activity and sedentary time for 7 days.