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Population study: followed a group

Study that followed 14,399 older women: more daily steps linked to lower death risk

Hamaya and colleagues · JAMA internal medicine · 2024

Original title: Time- vs Step-Based Physical Activity Metrics for Health.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

Each extra standard deviation of steps went with HR 0.74 for death from any cause. The top 3 step groups lived 2.36 months longer free of death at 9 years than the bottom group.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
14,399 people · Women aged 62 and older without heart disease or cancer (average age 71.8)
What was tested
Wore a movement sensor for 7 days, then followed for deaths; compared step counts and minutes of hard activity
What it measured
The question itself: death from any cause
Who has a stake
Company stake
One author got consulting fees from DeSC Healthcare, Inc; other funding is from NIH.
Journal
JAMA internal medicine, 2024
Source
PubMed record 38767892. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
  • ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
  • ✓Large: 14,399 people.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: death from any cause.
  • –Company stake: One author got consulting fees from DeSC Healthcare, Inc; other funding is from NIH.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: death from any cause

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    10

    9 benefit, 1 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “How many steps a day lower the risk of early death?”

About 6,000 to 10,000 steps; fewer if older.

Confidence: low. Based on 17 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 9 papers on the same step: 8 benefit, 1 no difference. This one found benefit. It agrees with most of them.

  • Open item for a person: Hamaya 2024 marked company stake for a DeSC Healthcare consulting fee; the record does not say what that firm sells. Confirm.

Other papers on the same step

See all 17 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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