A new study found walking 6,000 steps a day could help ease osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee.
Walking the recommended amount of steps per day could also prevent further mobility loss, such as having trouble getting up from a chair, a Wiley news release reported.
About 27 million Americans 25 years of age or older are currently diagnosed with OA; the conditional is the leading cause of functional mobility loss in adults.
About 80 percent of OA patients have limitations in their movement and 11 percent of these patients require personal assistance.
Research suggests that about two-thirds of older adults spend less than 90 minutes per week walking.
"Our study examines if more walking equates with better functioning, and if so, how much daily walking is needed to minimize risk of developing problems with mobility in people with knee OA," Daniel White, PT, ScD, from Sargent College at Boston University in Massachusetts, said in the news release.
To make their findings the researchers measured the daily amount of steps taken by 1,788 people who had or were at risk for OA and were part of the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study.
The participants' walking was monitored for seven days and then functional limitation was tested two years later.
The team found that taking an additional 1,000 steps per week could reduce the progression of functional limitation by between 16 and 18 percent.
Walking less than 6,000 steps every day was the "threshold" for determining who would develop functional limitation
"Walking is an inexpensive activity and despite the common popular goal of walking 10,000 steps per day, our study finds only 6,000 steps are necessary to realize benefits. We encourage those with or at risk of knee OA to walk at least 3,000 or more steps each day, and ultimately progress to 6,000 steps daily to minimize the risk of developing difficulty with mobility," Doctor White said.
