Overview

• A Lancet Public Health meta-analysis led by Prof. Melody Ding reviewed 57 studies involving over 275,000 participants to reassess daily step targets.
• Participants averaging 7,000 steps per day saw early mortality risk fall by 47%, cardiovascular disease by 25%, depression by 22%, dementia by 38% and falls by 28% compared to those taking 2,000 steps.
• Even modest increases from 2,000 to 4,000 daily steps were linked to a 36% reduction in mortality risk, underscoring benefits at lower activity levels.
• The 10,000-step guideline traces back to a 1964 Japanese marketing campaign rather than scientific research and offers no proven health advantage over the 7,000-step benchmark.
• Researchers describe the evidence as moderate and emphasize the need for age- and comorbidity-specific studies to refine personalized step-count recommendations.