Workers can spend decades looking forward to retirement. Appropriately named the golden years, this period of life connotes to many a leisurely-paced coffee brew, an afternoon stroll or hours spent on the golf course. According to some scientists though, the benefits of continued work during the golden years could add over a decade to a life span.

Men and women who take on full- or part-time jobs after their initial retirement have better health than those who do not, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Maryland collected data from 12,189 men and women between the ages of 51 and 61, over a 6-year period. According to the New York Times, the participants answered questions about their employment histories, experiences after retirement and status of their health.

The study, which was published in the October edition of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, found that men and women who kept working after retirement had few major diseases or disabilities. In another study, retirees who continued work after age 70 were two and a half times more likely to be alive at 82-years-old than those who stopped work.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average retirement age in the U.S. is 62.