Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32563261›Full record

SynthesisThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2020

Systematic review of the prospective association of daily step counts with risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, and dysglycemia.

Katherine S Hall, Eric T Hyde, David R Bassett, Susan A Carlson, Mercedes R Carnethon, Ulf Ekelund, Kelly R Evenson, Deborah A Galuska, William E Kraus, I-Min Lee and 5 more

Open access · goldAbstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 172 papers, 16 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
172citing papers in PubMed, 16 pooled it
28.2field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

172 citing papers in PubMed, 16 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 350 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Guideline
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Pooled it
  10. Pooled it
  11. Pooled it
  12. Pooled it
  13. Pooled it
  14. Pooled it
  15. Pooled it
  16. Guideline
  17. Trial
  18. Trial
  19. Trial
  20. Trial

112 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors at 9 institutions in 2 countries.

Katherine S HallGeriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Durham VA Health Care System, Durham, NC, USA. katherine.hall@duke.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-9834-2011
Eric T HydeDivision of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
David R BassettDepartment of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
Susan A CarlsonDivision of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Mercedes R CarnethonDepartment of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Ulf EkelundDepartment of Sport Medicine, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway and Department of Chronic Diseases and Ageing, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Kelly R EvensonDepartment of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Deborah A GaluskaDivision of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
William E KrausClaude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, Duke Aging Center, and the Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
I-Min LeeBrigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Charles E MatthewsMetabolic Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA.
John D OmuraDivision of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Amanda E PaluchDepartment of Kinesiology, Institute for Applied Life Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
William I ThomasOffice of Library Science, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Janet E FultonDivision of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · USDuke University · USBrigham and Women's Hospital · USNational Cancer Institute · USNorthwestern University · USNorwegian Institute of Public Health · NOUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst · USUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · USUniversity of Tennessee at Knoxville · US

Funding

Research Education Component (REC)P30AG028716 · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2025 to 2025
$1.3M
Physical Activity, Energy Balance, and CancerZIACP010197 · DIVISION OF CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY AND GENETICS · 2025 to 2025
$1.1M
NCI NIH HHS 1R01CA227122NCI NIH HHS CA182913NCI NIH HHS R01 CA227122NIA NIH HHS P30 AG028716NIA NIH HHS P30AG028716RRD VA IK2 RX001316
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDaily step counts is an intuitive metric that has demonstrated success in motivating physical activity in adults and may hold potential for future public health physical activity recommendations. This review seeks to clarify the pattern of the associations between daily steps and subsequent all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality, and dysglycemia, as well as the number of daily steps needed for health outcomes.

methodsA systematic review was conducted to identify prospective studies assessing daily step count measured by pedometer or accelerometer and their associations with all-cause mortality, CVD morbidity or mortality, and dysglycemia (dysglycemia or diabetes incidence, insulin sensitivity, fasting glucose, HbA1c). The search was performed across the Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library databases from inception to August 1, 2019. Eligibility criteria included longitudinal design with health outcomes assessed at baseline and subsequent timepoints; defining steps per day as the exposure; reporting all-cause mortality, CVD morbidity or mortality, and/or dysglycemia outcomes; adults ≥18 years old; and non-patient populations.

resultsSeventeen prospective studies involving over 30,000 adults were identified. Five studies reported on all-cause mortality (follow-up time 4-10 years), four on cardiovascular risk or events (6 months to 6 years), and eight on dysglycemia outcomes (3 months to 5 years). For each 1000 daily step count increase at baseline, risk reductions in all-cause mortality (6-36%) and CVD (5-21%) at follow-up were estimated across a subsample of included studies. There was no evidence of significant interaction by age, sex, health conditions or behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, smoking status, diet) among studies that tested for interactions. Studies examining dysglycemia outcomes report inconsistent findings, partially due to heterogeneity across studies of glycemia-related biomarker outcomes, analytic approaches, and sample characteristics.

conclusionsEvidence from longitudinal data consistently demonstrated that walking an additional 1000 steps per day can help lower the risk of all-cause mortality, and CVD morbidity and mortality in adults, and that health benefits are present below 10,000 steps per day. However, the shape of the dose-response relation is not yet clear. Data are currently lacking to identify a specific minimum threshold of daily step counts needed to obtain overall health benefit.

Indexed as

AdultBlood GlucoseCardiovascular DiseasesFitness TrackersGlucose Metabolism DisordersHumansProspective StudiesWalkingBlood GlucoseAccelerometerDiabetesPhysical activityPhysical activity guidelinesPreventionPublic healthWalking

Identifiers

PMID32563261
PMCPMC7305604
OpenAlexW3036483363

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.