A February 2024 study by New York University at Buffalo said,
“In ambulatory older women, higher amounts of usual daily light and moderate intensity activities were associated with lower risk of developing heart failure with preserved ejection fraction independent of demographic and clinical factors associated with heart failure risk,”
“Accumulating 3,000 steps per day might be a reasonable target that would be consistent with the amount of daily activity performed by women in this study.”
“This is a major, unique finding of our study because there is very little published data on physical activity and HFpEF, so we are providing new information upon which other studies can build,”
“More importantly, [in] the most common form of heart failure seen in older women and among racial and ethnic minority groups, and at present there are few established treatment options, which makes primary prevention all the more relevant…. The potential for light intensity activities of daily life to contribute to the prevention of [this type of heart failure] in older women is an exciting and promising result for future studies to evaluate in other groups, including older men,”
“…conveying how much activity is always a challenge to incorporate as part of clinical and public health recommendations,”
“Steps per day is easily understood and can be measured by a variety of consumer-level wearable devices to help people monitor their physical activity levels.”
“It appeared that intensity of stepping did not influence the lower risk of heart failure as results were comparable for light intensity steps and for more vigorous steps,”
“Our results showing heart failure prevention in older women might be enhanced through walking around 3,000 steps or so per day at usual pace is very relevant given the current emphasis at the federal level on identifying an amount of daily physical activity that can be referenced against steps per day for cardiovascular health and resilience to incorporate in future public health guidelines.”