Can the pace at which a peson walks predict how long they are going to live? That's what a new study indicates.

Stephanie studenski of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues analyzed data collected from nine studies conducted between 1986 and 2000 involving 34,485 adults ages 65 and older whose gait speed was measured while walking at their usual pace.

In a paper published January 5, 2010 in the Journal of the Americal Medical Association, the researchers calculated that an individual's walking speed was associated with their probability of survival at all ages and for both sexes. The average walking speed was about a metre per second. But the changes of surviving another 5 to 10 years increased the faster a person walked, especially among those ages 75 and older, the researchers found.

Walking may predict survival because it requires energy and muscle control as well as major organs such as the heart, lungs and major bodily systems such as the curculatory, nervous and skeletal systems, the researchers said.

So it could offer a good way to spot people who are at risk of dying prematurely, they said.

But in an editorial accompanyig the study, Matteo Cesari of the Universita Campus BioMedico in Rome wrote much more research is needed before doctors routinely start measuring how fast people walk to get an idea of how long they may live.