Do you really need to take 10,000 steps a day for better health?

A new study says you might not have to walk far to see benefits.

If you've invested in a fitness tracker, chances are you've heard that you should take 10,000 steps a day for better health. If that sounds daunting, there's good news: a study published online May 29 by JAMA Internal Medicine found that you may able to reap health benefits by taking half that number of steps each day.

Researchers found that in older women, taking as few as 4,400 steps per day was associated with a 41% lower risk of dying during the study period when compared with women who walked 2,500 steps a day or fewer. In addition, it didn't seem to matter if the women took those steps power walking or just moving around the house.