• Posted May 7, 2026

Every 1,000 Steps After Surgery Cuts Complication Risk, Study Finds

People recovering from surgery have an easy way to boost their odds of a successful recuperation — take a stroll.

Every extra 1,000 steps a patient takes daily after surgery lowers their odds of complications, researchers reported May 6 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

This link between extra steps and better recovery applied across different types of procedures regardless of the patients’ overall health, researchers found.

Researchers discovered this after tracking nearly 2,000 people undergoing inpatient surgery who wore activity trackers while undergoing inpatient surgery.

“We tell patients that they need to get up and walk after an operation, but we don’t have a good sense of how much they’re actually moving,” senior researcher Dr. Timothy Pawlik, chair of surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, said in a news release.

“Wearables give us an objective, continuous readout,” Pawlik said. “Instead of asking how you feel, we can see that you’re up and moving, which is a very actionable signal of how your recovery is progressing.”

Results showed that each additional 1,000 steps per day after surgery are linked to 18% lower odds of complications, 16% lower odds of needing readmission to hospital, and 6% shorter hospital stays.

These results held even after researchers adjusted for factors like age, sex, and the level of surgical risk for each patient, researchers said.

The results align with a 2023 study which found that patients who took more than 7,500 steps per day prior to surgery had a 51% lower risk of complications after their procedure, researchers noted.

“It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation,” Pawlik said. “People who feel better are naturally more likely to be up and around. However, the signal is so strong that it suggests step count is not just a marker of wellness, but a key component of it. Seeing a patient’s step count drop can be an early indicator to intervene, perhaps by involving physical therapy or checking in more frequently.”

Patients and doctors can use this data to help set goals before and after surgery, Pawlick added.

“If a patient’s goal is 8,000 steps before surgery and 6,000 on postoperative day three, they can see if they’re hitting those targets,” Pawlick said. “It gives them a concrete goal and gives us objective data to help decide if they’re ready for discharge or if they need more support at home.”

More information

American College of Surgeons has more on recovering from surgery.

SOURCES: American College of Surgeons, news release, May 6, 2026; Journal of the American College of Surgeons, May 6, 2026