Daily step count to avoid depression revealed

We’ve been aiming for 10,000 steps a day since the 1960s, but a recent study has suggested a new target to gain health benefits.

For years, walking 10,000 steps a day has been hailed as the golden standard for staying active.

But now, a groundbreaking review suggests far fewer steps are needed — at least, while trying to ward off depression.

Physical exercise has long been known to play a vital role in improving mental health and wellbeing.

However, this is the first study to investigate the benefit of step counts and find a link between the two, The Sun reported.

Scientists from Spain analysed 33 studies involving nearly 100,000 participants.

They found that taking 7000 steps a day reduced the likelihood of depression by 31 per cent.

The risk also decreased by a further nine per cent for every 10,000 steps a day, the study published in the journal Jama Network Open, found.

For years, 10,000 steps has been everyone’s daily walking goal. Picture: iStock

In Australia, 19 per cent of people have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or any other serious mental as of 2021.

Participants in the study wore pedometers to track their daily steps and completed questionnaires to assess their mental health.

“Our results showed significant associations between higher numbers of daily steps and fewer depressive symptoms as well as lower prevalence and risk of depression in the general adult population,” the scientists from the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha wrote.

They said encouraging people to complete at least 7000 steps a day would be a good public health initiative “that has the potential to prevent depression”.

Experts cautioned the findings didn’t prove causation, but the study highlighted the potential benefits of encouraging people to meet daily step targets.

“While it shows a clear association between higher step counts and lower depression symptoms, we can’t definitively say that walking more reduces depression, as most studies only looked at one point in time,” said Dr Brendon Stubbs from King’s College London, who was not involved in the study.

The study revises previous beliefs about how many steps were required each day for good health. Picture: iStock

“However, the findings align well with existing evidence about physical activity’s benefits for mental health.

“The encouraging message is that even modest increases in daily steps day can potentially reduce the risk of future depression.

“We really do however need long-term randomised trials to test if this is causal.”

The goal of walking 10,000 steps a day became a social phenomenon in the mid-1960s when a Japanese tech company launched the first-ever step-counting watch.

Since then, numerous studies have shown this once-arbitrary target actually held some value.

A 2023 US study revealed that walking between 6000 and 9000 steps a day could slash the risk of heart disease by up to 50 per cent, compared to taking just 2000 steps.

Meanwhile, another US team found earlier this year that 6000 steps a day was the sweet spot for reducing the risk of an early death.

This story originally appeared on The Sun and reproduced with permission

Originally published as Daily step count to avoid depression revealed