Implications for practice and research

• Encouraging daily steps and increasing the daily time with high cadence steps may be important means to prevent morbidity and prolong lifespan.

• Assessment of daily steps over a longer period may further elucidate the shape of the dose–response relationship and better quantify the benefits of increasing daily step counts.

Context

Physical activity is widely recommended due to the extensive evidence supporting its numerous health benefits, including lower risks of morbidity and mortality. While current physical activity guidelines quantify their recommendations in terms of minutes of physical activity, step count has emerged as another popular metric for quantifying physical activity. However, studies examining whether step count impacts …