WASHINGTON – Some folks like to take time to smell the roses, but walking quickly could mean you’ll be around longer to enjoy them.

Senior citizens who are the fastest walkers live longer than those with the slowest gaits, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and their collaborators.

The researchers crunched numbers from nine studies involving nearly 35,000 people.

Looking at the lives of slow and fast walkers who were 75 years old, only 19 percent of the slowest men and 35 percent of the slowest women lived another 10 years.

However, 87 and 91 percent, respectively, of the fastest walkers were still going.

WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.