Taking extra steps can lengthen your life.

A new study says elderly women who rack up 4400 to 7500 steps per day can live longer.

To understand how many steps per day are associated with decreased mortality, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital completed the study.

From 2011 to 2015, 17,466 women (with an average age of 72) from the Women’s Health study were required to wear fitness trackers on their hip for seven straight days.

The average follow up was 4.3 years, and 504 women had died.

Most women who died had steps per day that were less than 2700 per day.

But women who had 4400 steps per day had a 41 per cent reduction in mortality.

Decline in mortality levelled off at 7500 steps per day.

You can read about the study in JAMA Internal Medicine. (ABC)