Research articleTranslating Physical Activity Recommendations into a Pedometer-Based Step Goal: 3000 Steps in 30 Minutes
Introduction
It is recommended that U.S. adults engage in moderate-intensity physical activity for a minimum of 150 minutes each week,1 equivalent to 30 minutes daily, 5 days per week. Health benefits can also be achieved when this 30-minute goal is accomplished as a series of shorter bouts (typically three bouts of 10 minutes) accumulated throughout the day. Although it is easy to measure the frequency and duration of physical activity, evidence suggests that many individuals are unable to gauge their activity intensity when reading or hearing a description about what it should feel like.2 This presents a challenge, because health benefits are dependent on the intensity of activity, yet there are few valid and reliable monitoring tools available to the public that are affordable and simple to use.
One objective activity-monitoring tool that is feasible for use in public health settings is the pedometer.3 A pedometer can be used to accurately track the volume of daily activity using the simple output of steps per day,4 and it may serve a motivational function because it instantly displays to the user the number of steps taken. A recent meta-analysis5 of 26 RCTs and observational studies reported that pedometer users increased their levels of physical activity by 27% over baseline levels. Significant decreases in BMI and blood pressure were also reported. Although the vast majority of commercially available pedometers do not measure activity intensity, pedometers are relatively inexpensive ($10–$25), which may explain why they have rapidly become a centerpiece of many local and national physical activity campaigns.6, 7 Moreover, individuals appear able to remember pedometer-based recommendations when targeted by public health campaigns8 and counseling.9 The most widely recognized step recommendation is to accumulate 10,000 steps per day.10 Although step goals do increase the effectiveness of pedometer use,5 the goal of 10,000 steps per day is based on limited evidence, may be unrealistic for many people,11 and does not incorporate activity intensity.
Researchers and practitioners have called for a directly measured index for the number of steps taken in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity walking.11 This would enable national recommendations to be translated easily for pedometer-based interventions and public health campaigns. Although accumulated evidence12, 13, 14, 15 suggests that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity walking translates to approximately 3000–4000 steps in healthy adults, the results are based on small samples, and activity intensity is often unmeasured, determined by self-report, or implied by walking speed. Only one study13 has used an objective measure of activity intensity to develop a step-based recommendation, but the findings lack generalizability because they are based on a sample of young healthy adults, and there was no control for data dependence in the analysis.16 The purposes of this study were (1) to evaluate the utility of using a commercially available pedometer to measure moderate-intensity walking in a community sample, (2) to determine the range of step counts per minute that define moderate-intensity walking for people of different weight status, and (3) to translate current recommendations for moderate-intensity physical activity into a pedometer-based step goal.
Section snippets
Participants
A community sample of 97 Latino adults (39 men, 58 women) with a mean age of 32.1 (±10.6) years, volunteered to participate in the study. The mean BMI for men was 27.5 (±3.7) kg·m2 and for women was 29.7 (±6.3) kg·m2. All participants were initially screened for age (18–55 years) and for cardiovascular abnormalities or symptoms using the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire.17 The study was approved by the IRB at San Diego State University, and all subjects provided informed consent before
Results
Means and SDs of measured variables at each treadmill speed by participant weight status are presented in Table 1. Although data analysis was conducted separately by gender, combined data are presented in the table because few gender differences emerged.
Discussion
The main finding of this study is that considerable error exists when using pedometer step counts to measure METs during treadmill walking in a community sample. Based on three different analytic models, the findings suggest that steps per minute explain 15%–41% of the variance in METs, and that only 50%–60% of individuals could be correctly classified as walking at moderate intensity using step rate alone.
Of the18 different step rates computed across subsamples and analytic methods, 11 (61%)
References (26)
- et al.
Physical activity promotion in primary care: bridging the gap between research and practice
Am J Prev Med
(2004) - et al.
A kinematic and kinetic comparison of overground and treadmill walking in healthy subjects
Gait Posture
(2007) 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
- et al.
Effects of 2 brief interventions on women's understanding of moderate-intensity physical activity
J Phys Act Health
(2008) - et al.
Proximal impact of Canada on the Move: the relationship of campaign awareness to pedometer ownership and use
Can J Public Health
(2006) - et al.
Pedometer measures of free-living physical activity: comparison of 13 models
Med Sci Sports Exerc
(2004) - et al.
Using pedometers to increase physical activity and improve health: a systematic review
JAMA
(2007) - et al.
Twelve-month effects of Canada on the move: a population-wide campaign to promote pedometer use and walking
Health Educ Res
(2007) - et al.
Using electronic step counters to increase lifestyle physical activity: Colorado on the move
J Phys Act Health
(2004) - et al.
Awareness of the 10,000 steps program across Queensland
(2006)
Use of the pedometer for promoting daily walking exercise
J Int Council Health Phys Educ Rec
How many steps/day are enough?Preliminary pedometer indices for public health
Sports Med
Contribution of structured exercise class participation and informal walking for exercise to daily physical activity in community-dwelling older adults
Res Q Exerc Sport
Cited by (327)
Pedometer- and accelerometer- based physical activity interventions in Type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2024, Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular DiseasesSex inequality driven by dispersal
2023, Current BiologySpatio-temporal and contextual cues to support reflection in physical activity tracking
2022, International Journal of Human Computer StudiesCitation Excerpt :The location of the heatmaps is informed by the GPS data associated with the physical activity while the intensity of physical activity is conveyed through a colour scheme. The colour scheme follows the recommendations for step frequency where light-intensity walking activity (less than 100 step/minute) is indicated by green, moderate-intensity walking (equal to at least 100 steps/minute) is displayed in yellow, and walking with vigorous-intensity (130 steps/minute or higher) is shown in a range from orange to red (Choe et al., 2013; Marshall et al., 2009). The total number of steps and the active minutes of all episodes in that part is presented above each part of the day (see Fig. 3b).