Your daily step count may be more significant in reducing your risk of cancer than you think.
16:27, 01 Apr 2025
Walking
Light exercise such as walking or even doing housework may reduce cancer risk, according to the study(Image: Getty Images)
A new UK study has found that light exercise, such as the number of steps you take daily, may be significant for reducing cancer risk. While exercise has always been championed for boosting your health, it turns out little tweaks to your fitness can have a bigger impact than you think.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and University of Oxford found that individuals who engaged in light (and moderate-to-vigorous) intensity daily physical activity had a lower risk of cancer than individuals who were less physically active.
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The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, and was the first to evaluate the reduction of cancer risk associated with light-intensity activities such as running errands and doing housework.
Previous research has shown a link between physical activity and cancer risk reduction, although these prior studies focused on higher-intensity exercise, rather than light physical activity.
Professor Amy Berrington, Leader of the Institute of Cancer Research's Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Group said: “There is strong evidence that getting enough physical activity is linked to a lower risk of many types of cancer in both men and women.
“It’s thought that exercise lowers cancer risk in a number of ways, firstly, by helping to lower BMI, but also through the modulation of hormones, inflammation, the immune system, digestion and metabolism."
Step count
Taking enough steps every day could significantly reduce your risk of developing cancer, the study revealed(Image: Getty Images)
However, unlike this new study, the majority of previous studies into exercise and cancer risk relied on self-reported questionnaires, which may not accurately capture the intensity of different activities.
The new study discovered that a higher daily step count, but not the pace of the steps (known as step intensity), was associated with a lower risk of cancer.
Compared with cancer risk in those who take just 5,000 steps per day, cancer risk was 11 per cent lower for those taking 7,000 steps per day, and 16 per cent lower for those taking 9,000 steps per day.
Beyond 9,000 steps, the risk reduction plateaued. The scientists suggested that less physically active individuals may be able to lower their cancer risk by incorporating more walking, at any pace, into their daily routine.
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The study, which included over 85,000 people, saw participants in the UK Biobank study with a median age of 63 wear wrist accelerometers that tracked total daily activity, activity intensity, and daily step count over a period of one week.
The researchers at the University of Oxford then looked at the relationship between the daily activity averages and incidence of 13 cancer types, including breast and colorectal cancer, which were previously associated with physical activity.
After a mean follow-up of 5.8 years, 2,633 participants had been diagnosed with one of the 13 cancer types.
The scientists also explored the impact of replacing daily sedentary time with light (and moderate-to-vigorous) physical activity. They discovered that this shift was also associated with a reduced risk of cancer.
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Even after researchers adjusted for demographic factors, lifestyle factors, body mass index (BMI), and other health conditions, the associations between physical activity and cancer risk remained.
While light exercise was proven to reduce cancer risk, those with the highest total amount of daily physical activity had a 26 per cent lower risk of developing cancer than individuals who had the lowest amount of daily physical activity.