Older people are becoming healthier and should not be seen as an extreme burden on the NHS, researchers have claimed.
A study by the University of Oxford found people born in each year from 1912 were increasingly less likely to need emergency treatment.
They also spent shorter periods in hospital once they were admitted.
Healthier diets, reductions in smoking, vaccinations and preventative drugs have all helped to keep older people healthier in later life, according to the experts.
Barry McCormick, director of the university’s centre for health service economics and organisation, told The Times: ‘The perception that elderly people are placing an increasing burden on the hospital system needs to be moderated by a realisation that at each age people are a little bit healthier than they were in previous years and less demanding of hospital admission.’
He added: ‘A 70-year-old is using less hospital admission than a 70-year-old five or ten years ago.’
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.
This is despite each year’s new group of older people being less likely to be admitted to hospital than the previous year’s.
The rise is simply because there are more older people and factors such as technological advances mean patients are admitted more often for tests.
The rise can also be chalked up to society becoming increasingly ‘risk adverse’, meaning older people are more likely to seek treatment.
When taking these factors into account, the researchers calculated that older people becoming increasingly more healthy has led to a decline in emergency admissions of more than 100,000.
The figures suggested that when people are admitted to hospital, they stay there for less time. The number of bed days following emergency admissions of people aged 65 and over fell from 22 million in 2001 - 2002 to 20 million in 2012 - 2013, a decline of 9.1 per cent.
However, the researchers warned high levels of obesity among the young and drinking in middle age meant these trends may not continue.
David Oliver, president of the British Geriatrics Society, told The Times better health was caused by a combination of public health things like vaccinations, better medical treatment for long term conditions like blood pressure, diabetes as well as people smoking less.
However, he agreed this may not continue as today’s generation is ‘getting fatter and doing less exercise and drinking more’ and therefore might be less healthy.
NHS England has set out policy to reduce emergency admissions by 15 per cent by the end of the decade.
The news comes after a charity warned the NHS is having to fork out millions of pounds every year because of delays in getting elderly patients back into their own homes following a hospital stay.
The average patient needing adaptations to their home, such as new grab rails or ramps, following a stint in hospital is forced to wait in bed for an extra 27 days while improvements are made, charity Age UK said in September.
Its analysis of NHS data found that last year patients in England spent a total of 40,000 days confined to a hospital bed when they were well enough to go home while waiting for these changes.
These delayed discharge days cost the NHS an estimated £11.2 million, the charity said.
It has called on ministers to ensure that all new homes are built to the "lifetime home standard" so they can easily be adapted as people age.