• Carmen C Cuthbertson, Kelly R Evenson, Fang Wen, Christopher C Moore, Annie G Howard, Chongzhi Di, Humberto Parada, Charles E Matthews, JoAnn E Manson, Julie Buring, Eric J Shiroma, Andrea Z LaCroix, and I-Min Lee.
• Department of Health Education and Promotion, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, United States of America. Electronic address: Cuthbertsonc22@ecu.edu.
• Prev Med. 2024 Sep 1; 186: 108070108070.

ObjectiveAccumulating more steps/day is associated with a lower risk of cancer mortality and composite cancer outcomes. However, less is known about the relationship of steps/day with the risk of multiple site-specific cancers.MethodsThis study included >22,000 women from the Women's Health Accelerometry Collaboration Cohort (2011-2022), comprised of women from the Women's Health Study and Women's Health Initiative Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health Study. Steps/day and step intensity were collected with accelerometry. Incident cancer cases and deaths were adjudicated. Stratified Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the associations of steps/day and step intensity with incident breast, colon, endometrial, lung, and ovarian cancers, a composite of 13 physical activity-related cancers, total invasive cancer, and fatal cancer.ResultsOn average, women were 73.4 years old, accumulated 4993 steps/day, and had 7.9 years of follow-up. There were small nonsignificant inverse associations with the risks of colon cancer (HR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.83, 1.05), endometrial cancer (HR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.82, 1.01), and fatal cancer (HR = 0.95 95% CI: 0.90, 1.00) per 1000 steps/day. More minutes at ≥40 steps/min and a faster peak 10- and 30-min step cadence were associated with a lower risk of endometrial cancer, but findings were attenuated after adjustment for body mass index and steps/day.ConclusionsAmong women 62-97 years, there were small nonsignificant inverse associations of colon, endometrial, and fatal cancer with more steps/day. Epidemiologic studies with longer follow-up and updated assessments are needed to further explore these associations.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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