Walking 5,000 steps three times per week could add three years to life expectancy

• Research conducted by Vitality Global, and the London School of Economics, finds enormous health benefits from habitual exercise, even at low volumes.

• Sustaining a healthy habit has a disproportionate impact on health for older generations.

• Study establishes principles for creating a healthy habit that could significantly reduce healthcare costs, paving the way for targeted, incentivised behaviour change.

The research titled ‘The Vitality Habit Index’ mapped the behaviours and habits of one million Vitality Programme members¹ to determine the best ways to form and maintain healthy habits, and to understand the science of how healthy habits can lead to longer, healthier lives.

Insufficient physical activity is associated with up to five million premature deaths every year and drives up levels of overweight and obesity.² Estimates suggest that one in five deaths worldwide are now associated with poor diet and 1.5 billion people globally may be obese by 2035.³

The WHO estimates that 27.5% of adults and 81% of adolescents are physically inactive. If this level of inactivity maintains, new cases of preventable non-communicable diseases (such as type 2 diabetes) will cost health systems US$27 billion each year.⁴

As countries around the world deal with the strain of rising treatment costs, the Habit Index research sheds light on the small changes that people can take to improve their health and the significant impact that habitual exercise could have to make global health systems more resilient and sustainable.

Small changes to create and sustain healthier habits could have a significant impact on individuals’ health outcomes. Major positive impacts were seen across all age groups; however, this was particularly true for older generations, showing that it’s never too late to start. People 65 and older saw a 52% reduction in their mortality risk after sustaining a habit of 7,500 steps three or more times per week. This is significantly greater than those aged between 45 and 65, who saw a 38% reduction in their mortality risk, and the total population, who saw a 27% reduction.

The research indicates that doing 7,500 steps per day on average achieves the bulk of the reduction in common-cause mortality. Beyond 7,500 steps, the health improvements become more incremental.

On average across all age groups, those who sustain a healthy physical activity habit – physical activity three times per week for more than two years can - add between 2.5 years (for men) and three years (for women) to their life expectancy.

The research analysed the impact of forming and sustaining a physical activity habit on an individual’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. People who sustain a habit of 10,000 steps, three times a week, for three years can reduce their type 2 diabetes risk by up to 41%. Increasing the frequency of exercise to four or more times a week saw a 57% reduction in risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Similarly, there are major benefits for those with the condition already. A 55-year-old with type 2 diabetes who changes from limited physical activity to sustain a habit of 5,000 steps three times a week, reduces their all-cause mortality risk by 40%.

It is estimated that 529 million people have diabetes globally⁵, costing billions in treatment costs each year.

The Habit Index sheds light on the science of habit formation to understand how we can build habitual exercise habits and improve health.  It shows that the most enduring physical activity habits are formed gradually, in laddered increments, starting with a lower target.

The three rules for creating robust habits are:

1. Start low and slow – don’t be too ambitious. Individuals who start with low- to moderate-intensity exercise at low frequency are likely to maintain their habit 20% longer compared to those who start with high-intensity workouts.
2. Use “habit laddering” – set a target from your baseline. Set the target based on aims and existing health status, for example, when inactive, starting with 2,500 steps three to five times a week serves as the “first step on the ladder.”
3. Focus on consistency then intensity. Keep up the activity to form the habit and only increase the intensity once the action has been repeated for between six and eight weeks.

One of the fundamental challenges in embedding a preventative approach to health is bridging the gap between what we know we should do to remain healthy – and what we do. Incentives and personalised rewards can help bridge this gap in the beginning, as we gradually build up healthy habits, after which behaviours become automatic and resilient to change. Tailored incentives, coupled with a scientific understanding of how to form and sustain habits, can help people live longer, healthier lives.

Recognising the pivotal role that habits play in shaping health outcomes, Vitality has developed a data-driven tool to quantify habit formation: the Vitality Habit Index. 

In total, the study looked at the habits of over one million Vitality members across South Africa and the UK over a ten-year period, mapping their behaviours to understand how to make healthier habits, and consequently displace unhealthy habits.

This tool scientifically defines habits using verifiable data related to physical activity and nutrition. Vitality built a predictive model per member using the previous six weeks of a member’s data to predict the behaviour or action in the seventh week, and thus understand how well past behaviour predicts future behaviour.

Through its development, Vitality aims to understand the impact of lifestyle choices and behaviours on health, understand why individuals struggle to adhere to exercise goals, identify how to cultivate healthy habits, and discern which habits are more likely to endure. 

ENDS

[1] 1,000,000 people in the UK and South Africa between the years 2013-2023.

[2] Fit Bodies, Fit Economies, Vitality, 2019.

[3] WHO, Obesity and overweight, 2021.

[4] WHO, Global status report on physical activity, 2022.

[5] Ong et al., Global, regional, and national burden of diabetes from 1990 to 2021, 2023.