More than 3km per hour... The faster you walk, the lower your risk of diabetes!
There are more than one health effect that walking brings. For example, it reduces the risk of various diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and dementia. However, it is not well known that the speed of walking is as important as the distance and time walked per day.
A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people with an average walking speed of 2 to 3 miles per hour (3.2 to 4.8 kilometers per hour) had a higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those who walked more slowly. It was found to be 15% lower. People who walked briskly at 3 to 4 miles per hour (4.8 to 6.4 kilometers per hour) had a 24 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Walking faster than 4 miles per hour (6.4 kilometers per hour) reduced the risk by 39 percent.
Researchers from Imperial College London, Iran University School of Medicine and New University College Oslo, Norway, looked at 10 studies involving more than 508,000 adults in the UK, Japan and the US. “We noted that walking speed is a significantly different variable than walking time,” the researchers said. “Current strategies to increase total walking time are beneficial, but to further increase the health benefits of walking, we should encourage people to walk at faster paces.” “It may also be reasonable to encourage it,” he said.
If you find it difficult to walk at a fast pace, experts say that walking at a pace that allows you to speak, but not sing, may be beneficial to your health.
Meanwhile, according to a study published in the academic journal Sustainability in 2020, the average walking speed for most adults is about 3 miles per hour, but that speed generally decreases with age, to about 2 miles per hour for people over 65. It appears that there is a tendency to walk.
And although men generally walk at a faster pace than women, men tend to slow down when walking with others, while women tend to speed up when walking in pairs or groups.