People who climbed stairs had a 39% lower risk of cardiovascular death

People who habitually climbed stairs had a 39 percent lower likelihood of dying from cardiovascular disease than people who avoided them, according to a meta-analysis led by Dr. Sophie Paddock of the University of East Anglia. The same analysis found a 24 percent lower risk of dying from any cause. The finding first reached the public in April 2024 and remains one of the more cited numbers about everyday movement, mostly because the exercise it studies costs nothing and needs no equipment.

What the number means, and what it cannot prove, depends on how the analysis was built. Stair climbing in these studies is an observed habit rather than an assigned treatment, and the gap between the figures published at different stages shows why the estimate deserves both attention and caution.

Nine studies and 480,479 participants

Paddock presented the work on April 26, 2024, at ESC Preventive Cardiology in Athens, a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. According to the society’s press release, the team pooled nine studies covering 480,479 participants aged 35 to 84, 53 percent of them women. Some participants were healthy; others had a history of heart attack or peripheral arterial disease.

Compared with not climbing stairs, the analysis linked climbing to a 39 percent lower risk of cardiovascular death and a 24 percent lower risk of death from any cause, along with lower risks of heart attack, heart failure and stroke. The research was titled “Evaluating the cardiovascular benefits of stair climbing: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” and the press release said the work received no direct funding, though three authors were supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

A later write-up on ScienceDaily, dated August 14, 2026, reported that the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital team had published the work in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, with a median follow-up of 14 years and the same 39 percent and 24 percent figures. It also noted that one included cohort study suggested that climbing about six flights of stairs a day might provide the greatest benefit.

Two versions of the same meta-analysis

The version printed in the conference supplement of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology is less polished. That abstract says the PubMed search, run from inception through October 9, 2023, yielded 725 studies, of which 8 studies with 473,197 patients were included. A pooled analysis of five of them, covering 455,578 patients, gave a relative risk of 0.65 for cardiovascular mortality (95 percent confidence interval 0.50 to 0.83) and 0.70 for all-cause mortality (0.56 to 0.87).

The abstract’s relative risks correspond to a 35 percent and 30 percent reduction, against the 39 and 24 percent that the society announced after the analysis expanded to nine studies. The direction is the same in every version, and the pooled estimates changed as the analysis grew from eight studies to nine. Readers comparing sources will therefore find slightly different totals, and the 39 percent figure belongs to the nine-study, 480,479-participant analysis.

The limits of an observational estimate

Meta-analyses of observational studies compare groups that differ in many ways. People who take the stairs may be fitter, healthier or more active in general, and the design cannot separate the effect of the steps from those habits. Healio’s coverage flagged substantial heterogeneity, with heterogeneity statistics of 84 to 85 percent, meaning the included studies differed considerably in their results and methods, which the outlet said calls for caution in reading the size of the benefit.

The analysis also did not establish an optimal number of steps or a best climbing speed. The ESC release said as much, and the ScienceDaily account added that stair climbing may not suit people with mobility problems or joint conditions and that future studies using wearable trackers could measure exposure more accurately.

Paddock’s own framing is modest. “Even brief bursts of physical activity have beneficial health impacts, and short bouts of stair climbing should be an achievable target to integrate into daily routines,” she said in the society’s release.

Paddock’s advice sits alongside broader guidance. The World Health Organization’s physical activity fact sheet recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week for adults, and reports that 31 percent of adults do not meet recommended levels. Stairs are a form of activity that requires no equipment and no dedicated time, the practical case behind the ESC’s emphasis on short bouts.

Dose remains unsettled. The pooled evidence shows that stair climbers fared better across nine studies, but it still does not say how many flights a day, or how briskly, separates a measurable benefit from a token one.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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