Walking Behaviour Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011 Jul 28;8:80. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-8-80.
Older adults and special populations (living with disability and/or chronic illness that may limit mobility and/or physical endurance) can benefit from practicing a more physically active lifestyle, typically by increasing ambulatory activity. Step counting devices (accelerometers and pedometers) offer an opportunity to monitor daily ambulatory activity; however, an appropriate translation of public health guidelines in terms of steps/day is unknown. Therefore this review was conducted to translate public health recommendations in terms of steps/day. Normative data indicates that 1) healthy older adults average 2,000-9,000 steps/day, and 2) special populations average 1,200-8,800 steps/day. Pedometer-based interventions in older adults and special populations elicit a weighted increase of approximately 775 steps/day (or an effect size of 0.26) and 2,215 steps/day (or an effect size of 0.67), respectively. There is no evidence to inform a moderate intensity cadence (i.e., steps/minute) in older adults at this time. However, using the adult cadence of 100 steps/minute to demark the lower end of an absolutely-defined moderate intensity (i.e., 3 METs), and multiplying this by 30 minutes produces a reasonable heuristic (i.e., guiding) value of 3,000 steps. However, this cadence may be unattainable in some frail/diseased populations. Regardless, to truly translate public health guidelines, these steps should be taken over and above activities performed in the course of daily living, be of at least moderate intensity accumulated in minimally 10 minute bouts, and add up to at least 150 minutes over the week. Considering a daily background of 5,000 steps/day (which may actually be too high for some older adults and/or special populations), a computed translation approximates 8,000 steps on days that include a target of achieving 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and approximately 7,100 steps/day if averaged over a week. Measured directly and including these background activities, the evidence suggests that 30 minutes of daily MVPA accumulated in addition to habitual daily activities in healthy older adults is equivalent to taking approximately 7,000-10,000 steps/day. Those living with disability and/or chronic illness (that limits mobility and or/physical endurance) display lower levels of background daily activity, and this will affect whole-day estimates of recommended physical activity.
老年人和特殊人群（患有可能限制活动能力和/或身体耐力的残疾和/或慢性疾病）可以通过更积极的生活方式受益，通常通过增加活动量来实现。计步器（加速度计和计步器）提供了监测日常活动量的机会；然而，尚不清楚如何将公共卫生指南转化为每日步数。因此，进行了这项研究以将公共卫生建议转化为每日步数。 规范数据表明，1）健康的老年人平均每天走 2000-9000 步，2）特殊人群平均每天走 1200-8800 步。基于计步器的干预措施使老年人和特殊人群的步数分别增加了约 775 步/天（或效应大小为 0.26）和 2215 步/天（或效应大小为 0.67）。目前尚无证据表明，老年人的中等强度步频（即步/分钟）可以达到这一水平。然而，使用成年人 100 步/分钟的步频来标记绝对定义的中等强度的下限（即 3 METs），并将其乘以 30 分钟，就可以得出一个合理的启发式（即指导性）值 3000 步。然而，在一些虚弱/患病的人群中，这种步频可能无法达到。无论如何，为了真正转化公共卫生指南，这些步数应该在日常生活活动之外进行，并且至少要有中等强度的运动，10 分钟为一个时间段，每天至少积累 30 分钟，每周至少达到 150 分钟。考虑到老年人和/或特殊人群每天的基础步数为 5000 步，如果将其用于计算目标，那么要达到每天 30 分钟的中等到剧烈的身体活动（MVPA），大约需要增加 8000 步，而如果将其平均到一周，则需要大约 7100 步。如果直接测量并包括这些背景活动，那么证据表明，在健康的老年人中，每天增加 30 分钟的 MVPA 加上日常活动，相当于每天走 7000-10000 步。患有残疾和/或慢性疾病（限制活动能力和/或身体耐力）的人日常活动水平较低，这将影响对推荐体力活动的全天估计。
