Published: 17:15 BST, 31 August 2026 | Updated: 17:44 BST, 31 August 2026
As you get older, swapping your two-storey house for a bungalow with everything conveniently on one floor might seem like the perfect solution. But increasingly research suggests living without stairs can be bad news for your health.
A major new study by the University of East Anglia has revealed that regularly climbing the stairs significantly reduces your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
This follows other research which has found that having stairs in your home can help prevent age-related decline.
In fact, the evidence supporting the health benefits of stairs is becoming so strong that some question whether there should be a rethink about how appropriate bungalows are for older people.
Academics at Newcastle University, writing in the Journal of Urban Design in 2024, pointed out that using stairs can ‘maintain healthy body weight, lower blood pressure and increase aerobic fitness [when] entering older age’.
They questioned whether ‘removing every physical challenge’ [such as stairs] from where we live may have ‘unforeseen consequences’ – among them, the dreaded ‘bungalow’ legs (more of which later).
The impact of your home environment on how you age should not be underestimated.
Researchers in Japan monitored the health and physical independence of almost 7,000 over-65s living in a single-storey home, a home accessed by a lift, or a home with stairs, for three years. The results, published in the journal BMC Geriatrics in 2018, found that those in the homes with stairs showed the least age-related physical decline.
Because stair climbing involves lifting your body upwards, it requires your muscles to do much more than is required during ordinary walking, says Helen O’Leary, a physiotherapist based in London
The idea that taking the stairs is good for you might not sound new – but what scientists had not realised was just how good it is for you.
‘We went into our study expecting to see some benefits, but we were surprised how much of a boost climbing stairs can give your health,’ says Vassilios Vassiliou, a clinical professor of cardiac medicine. He led the recent University of East Anglia research, published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs.
He and his team reviewed the outcomes of five studies involving 450,000 people (aged 35 to 84) and found that those who regularly climbed stairs were 39 per cent less likely to die from heart-related problems and 24 per cent less likely to die from any cause – compared with people who didn’t climb stairs as often.
What’s more, the stair climbers were less likely to suffer major cardiovascular conditions such as a heart attack, stroke and heart failure during the 14 years they were monitored.
Professor Vassiliou says ‘the vast majority of the benefit of stair climbing is obtained at around six flights – equivalent to 60 steps – of stairs per day’ – but, he says, even doing ‘one or two flights of stairs every day is by far better than nothing’.
