Background
Usual walking pace represents a practical indicator of overall health. However, its association with cancer development remains unexplored. We investigated the relation between self-reported walking pace and cancer risk.
Methods
Using baseline UK Biobank data from 2006 to 2010, excluding the first two years of follow-up to reduce reverse causation, we employed multivariable Cox regression to assess the association between walking pace (slow, steady average, brisk) and risk of 28 cancer types, accounting for overall physical activity and walking volume.
Results
After a median follow-up of 10.9 years (interquartile range 10.1–11.8), 8.3% of 334,924 participants received a cancer diagnosis. Brisk compared to slow walking pace was associated with multivariable-adjusted lower risks of five cancers, including anal (hazard ratio 0.30; 95% confidence interval: 0.14–0.63), hepatocellular carcinoma (0.39; 0.23–0.66), small intestine (0.46; 0.24–0.87), thyroid (0.50; 0.29–0.86), and lung cancer (0.60; 0.51–0.70). Our findings were consistent across various sensitivity analyses, which assessed sex and age differences, residual confounding, and reverse causation.
Conclusions
Self-reported walking pace was inversely associated with risk of five cancer types, even when accounting for overall physical activity and walking volume. Adopting a brisk walking pace may represent a pragmatic target for public health interventions to decrease cancer risk, particularly in circumstances where increases in walking volume or frequency prove impractical.