LANCASHIRE health leaders have given a mixed reaction to a new study which claims that elderly people are healthier than ever.

One charity agreed with the University of Oxford research, which found that people born in each year from 1912 were statistically increasingly less likely to need emergency treatment.

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But the paper also showed that the number of emergency admissions of patients aged over 65 rose from 1.51 million in 1999-2000 to 2.13 million in 2011-12.

County Councillor Azhar Ali, cabinet member for health and wellbeing on Lancashire County Council, said elderly people fell into ‘two distinct categories’.

Coun Ali said: “I think it depends how we define healthy. They are definitely living longer and we have better medicine to go with it, but if you look at the statistics, there are still more older people going into hospital, especially during winter.

“It’s difficult to say if elderly people are more active. Of course there are those who are, but there are a lot of older people who cannot afford all the leisure pursuits they would like.”

Despite the rise in over-65s being admitted in emergencies, because there is a growing number of people living longer overall pensioners are less likely to be admitted to hospital than in previous years, the research showed.

David Ward, promotions manager at Age UK Lancashire, said preventing people from immediate returns to hospital was the key to keeping them healthy.

He said: “People are obviously living longer. We look to work at keeping people out of hospital by giving them the opportunity to have more active lives so that they can stay ‘out of the system’.

“We find that when they get out after suffering a fall or whatever, it can become a constant battle and that’s when people’s health deteriorates. They get into the cycle of needing treatment.

“The activities we put on, groups and clubs for things like dancing, knitting, art and keep-fit, help contribute to a healthier lifestyle. We would like to think the older people are healthier now than they were ten or15 years ago.” but everyone is different. In my experience, if someone loses a partner, that can be difficult and they become very isolated and that affects their health because they are cut off from the community.

“We encourage them to get out more and that’s generally the best way to counter it.”