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If the study were asking for distance instead of steps, then taller people will naturally go further in fewer steps. But, at least according to these studies, it is the act of stepping that improves health and not traveling distance.

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My apologies, I think in phrased that poorly.

The parent comment I replied to stated:

>Steps doesn't seem to be a bad measurement as it naturally partially controls for height

My question is why would height matter at all in this context if it were not controlled for? Is height associated with mortality?

Height is associated with a lot of things including mortality, yes. But more importantly, as mentioned other easy to measure metrics like distance would ignore that it takes different levels of exertion (due to different height and stride length) to cover a given distance while steps accounts for that to a larger extent.

So following this rationale, wouldn't steps naturally be different with different exertion with different heights? Doesn't seem like it really controls for height from my perspective

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