Walking

Among patients with arthritis who engaged in physical activity in the past month, about 71% reported walking as one of their two most frequent activities, followed by gardening and weightlifting, according to CDC researchers.

Men and women who took at least 7,000 steps per day had a 50% to 70% lower risk for mortality than those who took fewer than 7,000 steps per day, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open.

Low-intensity or high-intensity exercise to improve walking ability in patients with peripheral artery disease.

Adults with overweight or obesity had improved aerobic capacity and muscle strength after 6 months of supervised Nordic walking and maintained the improvements during 6 months of unsupervised training, according to study data.

Adults with peripheral artery disease who participated in a high-intensity, home-based walking exercise program for 12 months experienced improvements in measures of walking impairment vs. low intensity and controls, a speaker reported.

When presented with a range of treatment options, patients with osteoarthritis reported that the most important outcomes are disease progression and improving pain and walking, noted researchers in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Adults with increased levels of physical activity, including vigorous-intensity exercise and walking, had a lower risk for obstructive sleep apnea, according to a cross-sectional study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

A higher volume of steps per day in middle-aged adults lowered the risk for type 2 diabetes and stage 2 hypertension, according to data presented at the American Heart Association Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions.

A 3-month intervention using pedometers increased step counts for patients on dialysis, though steps reverted to baseline during the post-intervention follow-up.

Individuals living in less walkable urban areas have a higher 10-year risk for CVD than those living in highly walkable settings, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.