Tudor locke how many steps

This is speculative. Regardless, the difference in instrument sensitivity makes it so that the output of accelerometers should generally not be directly interpreted against the scaling presented herein. A direct conversion factor between instruments is not known at this time, but would certainly be useful. The continued use of BMI as a useful, albeit imperfect, indicator of body fatness is an appropriate analogy to the use of a pedometer as an indicator of healthful levels of physical activity.

Regardless, any step-based translation of current physical activity guidelines should clearly convey the importance of making an appropriate portion of daily steps congruent with undertaking recommended amounts and bouts of MVPA [ 86 , 87 ].

The very broad ranges of habitual activity evident from normative data reflect the natural diversity of physical capacity common to older adults and special populations. There is no evidence to inform an absolutely-defined moderate intensity cadence specific to older adults at this time. To be a true translation of public health guidelines these steps should be taken over and above activities of everyday living, be of at least moderate intensity accumulated in minimally 10 minute bouts i.

Direct evidence is urgently needed for other special populations. Individuals living with more physically limiting conditions may demonstrate lower normative values and thus may benefit from more individualized daily step targets relative to their unique baseline values.

All estimates herein express translations of minimal recommendations, and more is likely better. Exercise and physical activity for older adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Article Google Scholar. Department of Health and Human Services. Google Scholar. Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health: Physical activity and older adults. Washington, D. Annu Rev Public Health. J Phys Act Health. For children and adolescents. For adults. Tudor-Locke C, Myers AM: Methodological considerations for researchers and practitioners using pedometers to measure physical ambulatory activity.

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Support Care Cancer. Can J Appl Physiol. J Sci Med Sport. Shephard RJ: Absolute versus relative intensity of physical activity in a dose-response context. Montgomery PS, Gardner AW: The clinical utility of a six-minute walk test in peripheral arterial occlusive disease patients. J Am Geriatr Soc. J Vasc Surg. Acta Physiol Oxf. J Sports Sci. Circ J. J Hepatol. J Physiol Anthropol. Foley S, Quinn S, Jones G: Pedometer determined ambulatory activity and bone mass: a population-based longitudinal study in older adults.

Osteoporos Int. CAS Google Scholar. J Aging Phys Act. Bouchard C: Physical activity and health: introduction to the dose-response symposium. Int J Obes Lond. How to 'count' non-ambulatory activity when using pedometers to assess physical activity.

Health Educ Res. Paroczai R, Kocsis L: Analysis of human walking and running parameters as a function of speed. Technol Health Care. Age Ageing. Vasc Med. A reflection upon the factors related to successfully increasing physical activity. Eur J Appl Physiol. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. Diabetes Care. Australas J Ageing.

Am J Health Behav. Obes Res. Am J Public Health. Can J Aging. J Nutr Elder. Prev Chronic Dis. Patient Educ Couns. J Nutr Educ Behav. It is possible that working towards any goal that represents an increase over baseline values is likely to be much more important, from a behavioural perspective at least, than the value of the exact target number [ 36 ]. It is important to acknowledge that the nature of a goal i.

It is also clear that other cognitive and behavioural strategies are important to incorporate into successful intervention programs [ 37 ]. Eight controlled studies Table 3 have been conducted using treadmills [ 38 — 43 ], tracks [ 40 ], or hallways [ 44 ] to determine exact step-based conversions of timed continuous ambulation.

Each of these strategies is indicated in the table notes. Cadence is known to be the primary strategy for increasing free-living walking speed [ 46 ] and although stride lengthening becomes relatively more important in running, cadence still increases with running speed [ 47 ].

To be considered a true translation of public health guidelines' focus on time in MVPA, however, these steps should be of at least moderate intensity i. Some physical activity guidelines recommend up to 60 minutes of activity that is of at least moderate intensity [ 6 , 9 ].

It is important to emphasize that these calculations consider only activities that generate steps. There are, of course, a wide range of human activities that may or may not generate steps, for example, those that may include upper body movement. However, bipedal locomotor activity is a fundamental aspect of human movement. Additionally, it has been shown that wrist-worn accelerometers add little extra information to those worn at the waist and therefore are also most sensitive to ambulatory activity detected while on the wrist [ 49 ].

The calculation above focused on adding recommended amounts of MVPA to baseline physical activity levels and therefore presumes 30 minutes of MVPA in a day. Tudor-Locke et al. Behrens et al. In the latter two studies, mean values of the sample can be influenced by skewed data, and the process does not effectively capture a threshold value necessarily associated with achieving public health guidelines. Jordan et al. MacFarlane et al. Finally, Tudor-Locke et al. A caveat is that these data considered any minute above MVPA, and therefore do not reflect an exact translation of public health guidelines that include a directive for minimal bout lengths.

However, the chasm between these guidelines that have been traditionally based on self-reported activity and objectively monitored activity has been pointed out previously by users of these NHANES data [ 55 ]. This range is similar to the threshold produced from the assumption-based computations above i.

This is in keeping with the recent physical activity guidelines [ 1 ] that acknowledge that, especially for inactive adults, "some physical activity is better than none. No additional benefit for depression was observed from attaining higher step-defined physical activity levels. Only the women's results were statistically significant. Krumm et al.

Although Dwyer et al. The corresponding values for potential reductions in waist circumference for women were 2. Despite data limitations e. Spring-levered pedometers are known to undercount steps related to obesity, so the values in this data base reflect that potential threat to validity [ 62 ]. Further, if such a threshold exists, it might only be readily achieved by a small and possibly already active subsample of any population.

Recently, there has been growing interest in the study of sedentary behaviour and its potentially deleterious effects on health [ 64 , 65 ]. For example, Schmidt et al. From a public health practice point of view it is both rational and appealing to focus on motivating behaviour change in the larger portions of the population with low to very low physical activity levels rather than to focus solely on tailoring messages that may very well only appeal to subsamples that are already comparatively active.

In summary, it may be that specific thresholds of step-defined physical activity are associated in different ways with specific health outcomes.

For example, relatively greater benefits in body composition parameters may be realized with small increments e. The concept of distinctly different dose-response curves related to physical activity is in keeping with the findings presented at the historic dose-response symposium in [ 66 ].

Human movement is not limited to bipedal locomotion, however, such locomotion is a fundamental part of daily life and is a prominent focus of public health physical activity guidelines. Steps can be accumulated throughout the day during chores, occupational requirements, child care, errands, and transportation.

Walking for exercise remains the most frequently reported leisure-time activity [ 67 ]. We acknowledge that step-based recommendations for physical activity might be more appropriate and better received by the large segment of the population who do not regularly engage in any sport or other exercise apart from walking. Incorporating at least 30 minutes, or approximately 3,, steps, of brisk walking should be emphasized with the promotion of any step-based recommendation, in line with public health guidelines' focus on time in MVPA.

The additional benefits of engaging in even more vigorous intensity activities, and activities that do not necessarily focus exclusively on bipedal locomotion, should also be acknowledged [ 1 ]. Current public health physical activity guidelines are derived from accumulated knowledge gained over the past several decades primarily from epidemiological and intervention studies of self-reported physical activity.

However, with the advent of body worn objective monitoring technologies there has been a keen interest in providing an objectively determined translation of the physical activity guidelines as stated, particularly with reference to time in MVPA. It is quite easy to ask someone to walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes at moderate intensity and produce a precise estimate of directly observed steps taken, for example. However, it is important to emphasize that the rich collection of research that has informed public health guidelines to date is based, for the most part, on self-reported behavior, that is, people's unique perceptions and accounts of their own behaviour.

We have come to accept that, although there is a correlation [ 2 ], there is a disconnect between self-reported and objectively monitored physical activity; agreement between cross-tabulated NHANES accelerometer and self-reported physical activity data was only Further, those with absolutely no accelerometer-determined time spent in MVPA self-reported accumulating To be very clear, it remains possible that self-reported frequency and time spent in absolutely defined MVPA actually equates to a lesser amount of objectively monitored behaviour than a direct and objective measurement of free-living activity, that includes the same amount of MVPA, would suggest.

Alternatively, it is plausible that people have been systematically over-reporting absolute intensity of activity, as evident from the observed discrepancy between concurrent estimates of self-reported and objectively measured activity [ 55 ].

Any time a cut point of any type is set, there is an inevitable trade-off between sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity is the proportion of true positives values that are classified correctly as positive relative to the sum of both true positives and false negatives and specificity is the proportion of true negatives values that are classified correctly as negative relative to the sum of both true negatives and false positives.

This phenomenon is known [ 41 , 71 — 74 ]. A higher cut point is desirable in research if we really want to save resources, and are willing to 'let some slip by' in a focused effort to locate those for our research studies who are most likely to be accumulating appropriate amounts of time spent in MVPA.

This latter scenario is likely to be more acceptable in terms of public health strategies to communicate healthful levels of physical activity, especially if they are communicated as minimal cut points, above which additional benefits may be reaped. One minute of exercise a day can keep you healthy. Tudor-Locke admits she doesn't wear a device to count her own steps. Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted. By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses.

Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Methodological considerations for researchers and practitioners using pedometers to measure physical ambulatory activity. Res Q Exerc Sport ; 72 1 : 1— Development of a theory-based daily activity intervention for individuals with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Educ ; 27 1 : 85— Use of pedometers to assess physical activity.

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Hatano Y. Use of the pedometer for promoting daily walking exercise.