Your daily step count might reveal more than just your fitness progress. In a study of nearly 95,000 adults wearing activity trackers, lower step totals were linked to later Parkinson’s diagnoses.
Researchers analyzed activity tracker data from 94,696 U.K. Biobank participants who wore a wrist device that estimated how many steps they took each day. They then tracked new Parkinson’s disease diagnoses over time using linked hospital inpatient records and death records.
Over a median follow-up of 7.9 years, 407 participants developed Parkinson’s disease, but the link was strongest close to diagnosis and weakened years later, suggesting low activity may be an early sign rather than a cause. At first glance, the results looked striking. Every additional 1,000 steps per day was associated with an 8 percent lower risk of Parkinson’s.
“From about five years before diagnosis, we found that people with lower step counts had a noticeably higher risk of Parkinson’s disease,” paper author and biomedical informatics professor Aiden Doherty of the University of Oxford told Newsweek.
The relationship held even after the researchers accounted for factors that could influence both activity levels and health—including age and sex, as well as demographic and lifestyle variables.
But the study’s key message is more cautious. To figure out what was really going on, the researchers looked at when people were diagnosed after they wore the tracker.
The “more steps, lower risk” pattern was strongest for people diagnosed soon after. But for people diagnosed many years later, the pattern mostly faded. In other words, early Parkinson’s may be quietly slowing people down before it is diagnosed.
Tracking Day-To-Day Movement
Parkinson’s is best known for movement symptoms such as tremor, stiffness and slowed motion, but researchers increasingly recognize a lengthy “prodromal” phase—an early period when changes may be present but not yet obvious enough for a clinical diagnosis.
Wearable devices, which passively track day-to-day movement, could help to spot those early shifts in research settings. Still, the authors have stressed that the findings don’t mean step counts can diagnose Parkinson’s—or that a dip in steps automatically signals neurological disease.
“Our analysis of 94,696 middle-aged adults in the U.K. Biobank, who were followed over 8 years, indicates that low physical activity is more likely a consequence of, rather than cause for, future diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. However, I would like to emphasize that engaging in physical activity is still very important for general health,” Doherty said.
Daily activity can drop for countless reasons, including injury, depression, heart or lung problems, arthritis, caregiving demands or changes in routine.
The study also has limitations that matter for interpreting the results. Parkinson’s cases were identified through hospital and death data, which may miss milder cases treated only in outpatient settings. While the U.K. Biobank is a powerful research resource, it is not perfectly representative of the wider population.
Despite this, the new study adds to growing evidence that the devices many people already wear on their wrists could help researchers understand when Parkinson’s begins—and, eventually, how to spot it earlier than is possible today.
For people looking for ways to stay healthy, Doherty emphasized that following healthy lifestyle guidelines was key.
“Follow World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on physical activity which recommend at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity per week for all adults,” he said.
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References
Acquah, A., Creagh, A., Hamy, V., Shreves, A., Zisou, C., Harper, C., van Duijvenboden, S., Antoniades, C., Bennett, D., Clifton, D., & Doherty, A. (2025). Daily steps are a predictor of, but perhaps not a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease: Findings from the UK Biobank. Npj Parkinson’s Disease. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-025-01214-6
This news item came from: https://www.newsweek.com/parkinsons-disease-daily-step-count-early-warning-sign-11173805
