Prospective Associations of Daily Step Counts and Intensity With Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence and Mortality and All-Cause Mortality

IMPORTANCE: Recommendations for the number of steps per day may be easier to enact for some people than the current time- and intensity-based physical activity guidelines, but the evidence to support steps-based goals is limited. OBJECTIVE: To describe the associations of step count and intensity with all-cause mortality and cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence and mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This population-based prospective cohort study used data from the UK Biobank for 2013 to 2015 (median follow-up, 7 years) and included adults 40 to 79 years old in England, Scotland, and Wales. Participants were invited by email to partake in an accelerometer study. Registry-based morbidity and mortality were ascertained through October 2021. Data analyses were performed during March 2022. EXPOSURES: Baseline wrist accelerometer-measured daily step count and established cadence-based step intensity measures (steps/min): incidental steps, (