Fast walking may be the most accessible and effective way to improve longevity and reduce health disparities.
While doctors and health organizations have long touted the benefits of regular physical activity, whether walking pace matters and how it plays out across diverse communities have remained critical questions, especially for those living in underserved neighborhoods.
Now, findings shed new light on how even brief bursts of brisk walking may be a powerful equalizer in the fight against early mortality.
Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2025, the research was led by Lili Liu, M.P.H., and colleagues at Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Harnessing data from nearly 85,000 adults recruited between 2002 and 2009 across 12 Southeastern U.S. states, the team focused their lens on racially and economically diverse populations who often face the highest health risks and lowest access to safe recreational spaces.
Researchers didn’t just count steps—they analyzed how fast and how long participants walked each day, pairing this with lifestyle factors, health histories, and nearly 17 years of follow-up mortality data.
The results show that just 15 minutes of fast-paced walking daily cut the risk of death from any cause by nearly 20 percent (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.75-0.87). In stark contrast, those who engaged in over three hours of slow walking only nudged their risk down by about 4 percent (HR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.91-1.00), a difference that wasn’t statistically significant.
The life-extending power of brisk walking proved consistent even after accounting for overall activity levels, income, and preexisting health conditions—and the benefits were especially strong for deaths from heart disease, where 15 minutes of fast walking led to a 19 percent lower risk of fatal cardiovascular events.
But the study isn’t without caveats. All walking data was self-reported, leaving room for error or exaggeration. Physical activity was only measured at baseline, so lifestyle changes over the following years could not be tracked.
Still, the message is clear: Speed matters, and even small upticks in daily brisk walking could yield big gains across vulnerable communities and make positive impacts for public health programs.
References:
Study:
Liu L, Jia G, Shrubsole MJ, et al. Daily walking and mortality in racially and socioeconomically diverse US adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2025).
Further reading:
Stamatakis E, Kelly P, Strain T, et al. Self-rated walking pace and all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality: pooled analysis of 11 UK cohorts. Br J Sports Med. 2018;52(12):761-768.
Saint-Maurice PF, Troiano RP, Bassett DR Jr, et al. Association of daily step count with mortality among US adults. JAMA. 2020;323(12):1151-1160.
Paluch AE, Bajpai S, Bassett DR Jr, et al. Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. Lancet Public Health. 2022;7(3):e219-e228.
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