Walking can play a big role in helping to prevent diabetes, researchers said today.
Australian researchers have carried out the first study to estimate the effects of long-term changes in daily step count on insulin sensitivity.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia, enrolled 592 middle aged adults in the national study to map diabetes levels across the country between 2000 and 2005.
At the beginning, participants completed a detailed diet and lifestyle questionnaire, underwent a thorough health examination and were given a pedometer and instructed how to use it.
They were monitored again five years later.
Researchers found that a higher daily step count over five years was associated with a lower body mass index, lower waist to hip ratio, and better insulin sensitivity.
These associations were independent of calorie intake and appeared to be largely due to a change in adiposity (fatness) over the five years, say the authors.
They estimate that a sedentary person who takes a very low number of daily steps but who was able to change behaviour over five years to meet the popular 10,000 daily step guideline would have a threefold improvement in insulin sensitivity compared with a similar person who increased his or her steps to meet the more recent recommendation of 3,000 steps for five days a week.
“These findings, confirming an independent beneficial role of higher daily step count on body mass index, waist to hip ratio, and insulin sensitivity, provide further support to promote higher physical activity levels among middle aged adults,” they report.
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