![\"nature](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nature-walk.jpg\" "\\"Credit:")
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Credit: Unsplash\/CC0 Public Domain<\/p>\n
Investigators at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology report walking more than 100 minutes per day was associated with a 23% lower risk of chronic low back pain.<\/p>\n
Low back pain affects people of all ages and accounts for 7.7% of all years lived with disability worldwide, ranking among the most costly chronic conditions in health care. In the US, back pain generates some of the highest health care spending.<\/p>\n
Walking is the most affordable and accessible form of exercise for many. While guidelines<\/a> recommend maintaining physical activity<\/a> for the management of chronic low back pain, they offer no explicit targets for walking frequency or duration.<\/p>\n In the study, “Volume and Intensity of Walking and Risk of Chronic Low Back Pain,” published<\/a> in JAMA Network Open, researchers conducted a prospective cohort study<\/a> to examine whether accelerometer-derived daily walking volume and walking intensity are associated with the risk of chronic LBP.<\/p>\n Participants included 11,194 adults aged 20 years or older without chronic low back pain at baseline, drawn from the Tr\u00f8ndelag Health Study between 2017 and 2019, with follow-up from 2021 to 2023.<\/p>\n Two tri-axial AX3 accelerometers worn for a week measured daily walking volume and walking intensity. Self-reported chronic low back pain<\/a> at follow-up, defined as pain lasting three months or longer in the past 12 months, served as the primary outcome.<\/p>\n Those walking 101\u2013124 minutes per day showed a risk ratio of 0.77 (95% CI, 0.68\u20130.87), and those walking 125 minutes or more showed a risk ratio of 0.76 (95% CI, 0.67\u20130.87). Higher walking intensity was also associated with reduced risk.<\/p>\n Findings suggest public health strategies promoting walking volume may confer more pronounced preventive benefits than walking intensity for reducing the burden of chronic low back pain<\/a>.<\/p>\n Written for you by our author Justin Jackson<\/a>, edited by Sadie Harley<\/a>, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan<\/a>\u2014this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation<\/a> (especially monthly). You’ll get an ad-free<\/b> account as a thank-you.<\/p>\n