People can reduce their chances of suffering dementia by 50 percent if they walk 10,000 steps a day, according to a new study which also found that speed is even more important than steps taken.

Taking regular exercise is clearly known for its all-round health benefits, both physically and mentally, but now for the first time a precise figure has been put on how many steps a person needs to take each day to have maximum benefit.

There were 78,500 adults (aged 40 to 79), wearing trackers, who took part in the study – making it the largest experiment looking into the relationship between steps and health benefits.

Participants wore a wrist accelerometer to measure physical activity for at least three days over a period of seven days, to see the results after seven years.

Researchers from the universities of Sydney and Southern Denmark found that there was a lowered risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death from walking 10,000 steps daily.

But also taking faster steps were more important than taking 10,000 of them.

"The take-home message here is that for protective health benefits people could not only ideally aim for 10,000 steps a day but also aim to walk faster," said co-lead author Matthew Ahmadi, research fellow at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health.

If people walked 9,800 steps then they would lower their risk of getting dementia by 50 percent while taking as few as 3,800 reduced the chances by 25 percent.

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"For less active individuals, our study also demonstrates that as few as 3,800 steps a day can cut the risk of dementia by 25 percent," said co-lead author, Borja del Pozo Cruz from the University of Southern Denmark and senior researcher in health at the University of Cadiz.

Quicker steps had health benefits across the board in dementia, heart disease, cancer and death – and more so than the total daily step count.

Generally every 2,000 steps lowered risk of premature death incrementally by eight to 11 percent, up to approximately 10,000 steps a day – and similarly reduced people's chances of suffering from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

"Step count is easily understood and widely used by the public to track activity levels, thanks to the growing popularity of fitness trackers and apps, but rarely do people think about the pace of their steps," said senior author Emmanuel Stamatakis, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health.

"Findings from these studies could inform the first formal step-based physical activity guidelines and help develop effective public health programs aimed at preventing chronic disease."

The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Neurology.