Fast Walking Reduces Death Risk, Especially in Underserved Communities

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A large study of nearly 80,000 people, mostly from low-income and Black communities in the southeastern U.S., has found that walking, particularly at a faster pace, can significantly reduce the risk of death.

“Existing literature on walking and other leisure-time physical activity primarily focuses on middle-to-high income White populations, lacking representation of low-income, particularly low-income Black individuals,” wrote lead investigator Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, the Anne Potter Wilson Professor of Medicine and director of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center.

The team hypothesized that walking behaviors may be very different between people from low-income areas and those with higher-income backgrounds due to economic limitations and the higher likelihood of residing in communities with limited access to safe places to walk.

Impoverished populations have been shown to be at greater risk of disease and mortality due to an increased prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and often deal with a lack of access to health care or health insurance that can further increase the risk of death.

Despite this, few large studies with long-term follow-up have been conducted to determine the link between walking and mortality outcomes among racial and ethnic minority populations, who are disproportionately affected by low income.

Therefore, Zheng and his team followed participants for nearly 17 years and looked at how walking pace and duration were linked to long-term health outcomes. Upon enrollment in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS), participants gave baseline information on their daily walking time and pace, demographic details, lifestyle factors and health status.

At baseline, approximately half (47.9%) of respondents said they did not incorporate fast walking into their daily routine, while 34.2% said they walked slowly for more than three hours per day.

During the follow-up period, 26,862 deaths occurred, including those attributed to cardiovascular disease (13,486 people), cancer (6,378 people) and other diseases (5,408 people). Those in the fast-walking group tended to be younger, male, Black and single.

Results showed that walking briskly for just 15 minutes a day lowered the risk of dying from any cause by about 20%. In contrast, walking slowly for even more than 3 hours a day only reduced risk by about 4%. The benefits of fast walking were even greater for preventing deaths from heart disease compared with cancer.

Interestingly, these benefits were seen even in people who weren’t otherwise physically active and were especially strong in those who already had health problems at the start of the study. However, it is important to note that everyone — regardless of age, income or existing health conditions — saw improvements from walking faster.

The study was strengthened by the long-term follow-up and large number of participants. It was especially valuable because it focused on a large group of mostly low-income and Black individuals — groups that are often underrepresented in health research.

However, investigators pointed to a few limitations. Since participants reported their own walking habits, some may have included other activities such as climbing stairs, which could affect the results. Also, physical activity was only recorded once at the beginning, so they couldn’t assess how people’s habits changed over time. Finally, while the study did its best to account for other factors, there’s still a chance that unmeasured health issues or life circumstances could have influenced the results.

The team encourages future research to look more closely at how stress and financial hardship may play a role in health outcomes from walking.

“These findings highlight the importance of promoting walking, especially fast walking, as a form of physical activity to improve health, particularly in low-income and Black communities where poor health outcomes are prevalent,” concluded investigators.