Fast walkers live longer and are less likely to die of cardiovascular disease, study finds

There are few things more infuriating than being stuck on the pavement behind someone ambling at a snail-like pace.

Now, however, scientists have found that there is a benefit in being a fast walker as they live longer and are less likely to die of cancer or heart disease than dawdlers.

Data from almost 400,000 Britons followed for more than a decade show people who consider themselves to be “brisk walkers” are more than a quarter less likely to die of cancer than their saunter-prone peers.

The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was also around 60 per cent lower in hasty striders whereas the risk of dying from any other cause was about 70 per cent lower than the dilly-dalliers.

People in the study were asked to classify themselves as either a brisk, slow or average walker and given a guide that slow was less than 3mph, average was 3-4mph and brisk was more than 4mph.

Health information was gathered from both the UK Biobank project as well as the NHS file of each participant. Data was recorded until the end of September 2021 and Covid-19 accounted for one in 11 of all non-cancer and non-cardiovascular disease deaths so these were excluded from the analysis.

The average age of the participants was 57 and only 6.6 per cent of people admitted to being slow walkers. Half (52.6 per cent) had an average-paced gait and 40.8 per cent were power walkers.

Dramatic reduction in risk of death

A total of 22,413 people died during the 12-year follow-up period and analysis shows the most dramatic reduction in risk of death was among over-75s.

“Compared to slow walkers, both brisk and average walkers are associated with lower rates of deaths related to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other causes” the study authors write in their study, published in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases.

“Therefore, walking speed could be used in routine clinical practice as a predictive marker for cardiovascular disease and other-cause-related mortality in particular.

“Further clinical and pre-clinical studies are required to investigate the mechanisms behind these differences.

“Absolute risk reductions across walking speed categories were larger with increasing age, in males, and for deaths not related to cardiovascular disease or cancer.

“If causal, our findings highlight that some groups may particularly benefit from behavioural interventions to increase walking speed.”

Dr Jonathan Goldney, lead author of the study from the University of Leicester, said: “As far as we’re aware, the comparison between the risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other causes by different levels of walking pace has never been compared before.

“While we observed reductions in all three causes of death in brisk or average walkers, the largest reduction was detected in older male participants who passed from other causes of death.

“We encourage walkers to pick up their pace where possible, as this may just improve their life expectancy, alongside numerous other benefits to being physically active shown by previous research.

“Doctors should also consider asking their patients how quickly they walk, as it turns out that this can tell them a lot about their risk of death, which may guide the use of strategies to prevent early death and disease.”