July 29, 2025
The Main Idea
Pick up the pace of your daily walk to live longer, experts say
By Elsevier, edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
What We Already Know About Walking
Everyone knows that regular walking is really good for your health and well-being. But most of the research about walking has been done on white people who have middle or high incomes.
Now, scientists have done a new study using information from 79,856 people who are mostly low-income and Black individuals from 12 southeastern US states. This study proves that regular walking is really good for you, especially when you walk fast – and this is true for a group of people that hasn’t been studied much before.
The new study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, shows how important it is to encourage people to walk, especially at a brisk pace, as a great way to exercise and improve health.
What the Scientists Found
Dr. Wei Zheng, the lead scientist from Vanderbilt University, says, “While we know that daily walking is good for your health, not much research has looked at how things like walking pace affect how long people live, especially in low-income and Black/African-American populations.”
“Our research has shown that fast walking for as little as 15 minutes a day was connected to almost a 20% reduction in total deaths, while a smaller reduction in deaths was found when people did more than three hours of daily slow walking. This benefit stayed strong even after we considered other lifestyle factors.”
The participants in the study reported how much time per day (in minutes) they typically spend “walking slowly (like moving around, walking at work, walking the dog, or doing light exercise)” and “walking fast (like climbing stairs, brisk walking, or exercising).” The scientists found out who died and what caused their deaths by checking official death records.
Why Fast Walking is So Good for You
The protective effect of fast walking helped prevent all causes of death, but it was most helpful for preventing heart disease deaths. Importantly, the benefits of fast walking were separate from other leisure-time physical activities. Even for people who were already doing slow walking or some other physical activities, adding more fast walking made them even less likely to die.
According to the study, fast walking helps your heart health because:
It makes your heart work better: Fast walking is aerobic exercise, which means it improves how much blood your heart pumps out, increases oxygen delivery to your body, and makes your heart’s pumping action more efficient. This leads to better overall heart health.
It manages heart disease risk factors: Regular fast walking helps control your body weight and composition, reducing obesity and related risks like high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels.
It’s easy to do: Fast walking is convenient, doesn’t hurt your joints much, and is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels.
Why This Study is So Important
Low-income populations often face money problems and are more likely to live in poor, highly polluted communities with limited access to safe places to walk. Additionally, these populations tend to have more lifestyle behaviors that may increase disease risk and death, such as lower quality food, cigarette smoking, and heavy alcohol drinking.
At the same time, there are other challenges for people with low incomes, such as not having health insurance or access to health care, that may also increase their risk of dying. These factors all work together to increase deaths among low-income individuals and may help explain the differences we see in how long people of different races live.
By showing the benefits of fast walking in this study, this research gives direct evidence to help create targeted programs and policies to improve health equality.
What This Means for Everyone
Lili Liu, the lead author of the study from Vanderbilt University, concludes, “Public health campaigns and community-based programs can emphasize how important and available fast walking is to improve health outcomes, providing resources and support to help increase fast walking within all communities.”
“Furthermore, our findings about the reduced deaths associated with fast walking pace were supported by previous studies done with middle- and upper-middle-income populations. People should try to include more intense physical activity in their routines, such as brisk walking or other forms of aerobic exercise.”
The Bottom Line
This research shows that even just 15 minutes of fast walking per day can help you live longer, especially by protecting your heart. The best part is that fast walking is free, accessible to most people, and doesn’t require special equipment or gym memberships.
More information: The full study is called “Daily Walking and Mortality in Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse U.S. Adults” and was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2025.Provided by Elsevier
