The results of the study suggest that regular walking may help lower mortality risk. The most pronounced mortality reduction was related to fast walking.

A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has explored the relationship between daily walking and mortality, primarily focusing on low-income and Black participants.

Current guidelines from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion say that adults should get “150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity” each week, and this can include activities like brisk walking.

Physical activity is one thing that helps people stay healthy and reduce the risk of health problems as they grow older.

The researchers who conducted this study note that there is somewhat limited data focusing on low-income and low-income Black individuals when it comes to “walking and other leisure-time physical activity.”

For the study, they used data from the Southern Community Cohort Study, which includes participants from twelve southeastern states. About two-thirds of this cohort is Black, and over half of the cohort’s participants made less than $15,000 a year when they enrolled in the study.

For the current research, the main sample included 79,856 participants, who provided information on their daily walking habits, including speed and time.

Walking speed fell into two broad categories. Slow walking included things like walking at work and light exercise. Fast walking included things like brisk walking or climbing stairs.

For the time, participants were divided into categories based on ranges of walking time. Researchers also had data on things like smoking, alcohol intake, and leisure-time physical activity. Based on leisure-time physical activity, researchers divided participants into the three categories of “inactive, fairly active, and active.”

Researchers were able to consider the overall healthiness of participants’ lifestyles, and they had data on death and major causes of death.

The average follow-up time with participants was just under 17 years, and throughout this time, about 27,000 deaths occurred. The greatest number of deaths, around 13,500, were from cardiovascular disease.

About 48% of participants did not report fast walking, and about one-third walked slowly for more than 3 hours each day. For participants in this slow-walking category, there was 4% decreased mortality risk, but this was not statistically significant.