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 UK researchers looked at a total of 42 studies done since the late
1980s to see if participating in a walking group did more than just
fulfill recommended physical activity guidelines.
“Walking groups are increasingly popular but until now we have not
known if there are wider health benefits from walking groups, apart
from increasing physical activity,” study co-author Sarah Hanson
told Reuters Health in an email.
Hanson, a researcher with the Norwich Medical School at the
University of East Anglia said the findings provide clinicians with
evidence of an effective option to recommend to those patients who
would benefit from increasing moderate physical activity.
“We would love to see walking groups more widely recommended by
physicians, health trainers and nurses,” she said.
In the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Hanson and her coauthor
note that outdoor walking groups are all the rage in the UK. They
cite the example of Walking for Health, a program created 15 years
ago by an Oxford general practitioner that is now the country’s
largest walking network, with 70,000 walkers, 15,000 volunteer walk
leaders and 3,000 walks offered every week.
For their study, the researchers reviewed all the research they
could find on outdoor walking groups for adults, including only
studies that tracked physical and mental health changes in the
participants.
Data on more than 1,800 walkers in 14 countries was included in the
new analysis. The studies mostly examined walking as a potential
therapy for an existing condition, such as obesity, heart disease,
type 2 diabetes, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease and others,
although healthy people were also included in some studies.
The researchers found that, on average, participants who joined
walking groups experienced meaningful improvements in lung power,
overall physical functioning and general fitness, in addition to the
changes in blood pressure, body mass index and other important risk
factor measures.
The participants also tended to be less depressed after joining the
walking groups, although there was no apparent effect on other
mental health conditions.
And other significant risk factors, such as waist circumference,
fasting blood glucose and “good” cholesterol, also remained
unchanged.
About three of every four participants stayed with their walking
groups throughout the studies and the only side effects reported
were a few falls and one calf injury.
Hanson said it’s important for people to realize that physical
activity doesn’t have to be limited to participation in sports,
adding that something like walking in a group can become a good
habit.
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“Outdoor walking groups need no longer be viewed as just a leisure
activity, they are enjoyable and have wide ranging health benefits –
psychological as well as physical,” she said.
The British Heart Foundation website offers tips on preparing for
group walking (http://bit.ly/1AwEBTq). The American Heart
Association website also offers resources for finding or starting
organized walking groups (http://bit.ly/1cEAib2).
Hanson noted that she is currently doing research on the appeal of
the social aspect of walking in groups.
“There are a lot of lonely, isolated people who really benefit from
this aspect of the group,” she said. “For others, though, a group
walk represents an opportunity to be led on a walk with people
around (the presence of others) and have quiet head clearing time,
which is equally important too.”
Dr. Gunther Neumayr, whose research has found similar benefits from
hiking, told Reuters Health in an email, "Humans were selected for
motion and not for inactivity - inactivity makes us ill.”
Neumayr, a physician in Lienz, Austria, who was not involved in the
UK study, said, “Evidence is growing that inactivity has become the
most important single cardiovascular risk factor.”
Walking is a low-to-moderate intensity exercise that can be
performed by everyone, Neumayr said.
“Walking and hiking are the original forms of motion and should be
more recommended by public health campaigns to face this epidemic of
inactivity,” he said.
SOURCE: http://bmj.co/1zf7YrO
British Journal of Sports Medicine, online January 19, 2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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