THE ESSENTIAL
- Beyond 5,000 per day, walking an additional 1,000 steps reduces the risk of depression by 9%.
- Adults reaching 7,000 steps daily are 31 times less likely to have depressive symptoms.
- The benefits of walking on mental health seem to stabilize from 10,000 steps per day.
Getting away from depression by walking is the solution suggested by researchers from the University of Castile-La Mancha (Spain) in a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. As part of the work, they started from an observation: physical activity, whatever it may be, is a natural antidepressant, according to several scientific proofs. But what about an exercise as simple as walking?
Depression: “a number of steps greater than 7,500 per day” reduces the risk by 43%
To find out, they synthesized the associations between the number of objectively measured daily steps and depression in the general adult population. Specifically, the team reviewed 33 studies involving 96,173 adults aged 18 and over from around the world. The cohorts included people who used fitness trackers to calculate their daily steps and who provided information about their mental health, specifically their depressive symptoms.
The results showed that, compared to a baseline of 5,000 steps per day, participants taking even 1,000 additional steps daily saw their risk of developing depression decrease by 9%. Compared to people walking 5,000 steps per day or less, those who walked and reached 7,000 steps per day were 31 times less likely to suffer from depression. “In addition, taking more than 7,500 steps per day was associated with a 43% lower prevalence of depression.”indicated the authors before specifying that these trends applied to “all age groups, both men and women”.
Walking: the benefits on mental health stabilize from 10,000 steps per day
According to scientists, the benefits of walking on mental health seemed to stabilize at 10,000 steps per day. As has been observed in work on physical health, “Increasing the number of steps (beyond 10,000 per day) may not be associated with a significant reduction in depressive symptoms.” This data adds walking to many other forms of physical activity, such as aerobics, weight training, yoga and tai chi, as a way to keep depression at bay.
“Setting daily step count goals may be a promising and inclusive public health strategy for depression prevention,” the researchers concluded before adding that further prospective studies are needed to confirm the protective role of daily steps in mitigating the risk of depression in adulthood.
