As a reproductive-metabolic disorder, lifestyle interventions play a crucial role in managing Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) patients. However, maintaining physical activity in PCOS patients is often challenging. Daily steps are now widely used to provide relatively simple physical activity goals for the general public. This study examines the impact of daily steps on patients with PCOS, aiming to develop simple and effective intervention strategies for them.

This study included anthropometric parameters, metabolic indicators, sex hormones, and daily steps from women aged 16–40 years with PCOS (n=167) and without PCOS (n=152). Participants were divided into obese and non-obese groups based on BMI ≥25 for intergroup comparisons, comprehensively evaluating the association between daily steps and various indicators.

Among PCOS patients, 42.9% were sedentary, while only 8.8% were active or highly active. Indicators significantly correlated with step count in the correlation analysis underwent further multivariate linear regression analysis. RCS analysis further validated the positive linear relationship between HDL and daily step count in PCOS patients (P for non-linear = 0.125). For non-obese PCOS patients, daily step count showed linear relationships with TG (P for non-linear = 0.211), HDL (P for non-linear = 0.255), and VAI (P for non-linear = 0.839). Additionally, daily steps showed negative correlation with %body fat (p=0.033, R²=0.454), %android fat  (p=0.045, R²=0.413), Android/Gynoid ratio (A/G, p=0.041, R²=0.425), fat mass index (FMI, p=0.007, R²=0.671), and percent trunk fat (PTF, p=0.041, R²=0.427).

Non-obese PCOS patients exhibit accumulation of abdominal fat. Increasing daily step count positively impacts lipid and body fat metabolism in non-obese PCOS patients, serving as a simple strategy to support their health.