Gareth Ceidiog Hughes
I’m going to start with the good news. Unfortunately, the good news isn’t all that great.
According to researchers led by a team at University College London (UCL), the number of years autistic people lose to premature death is not as high as had previously been assumed. It has been widely reported that people on the spectrum live 16 years less, on average, than people who are not, but it turns out that this particular statistic is unlikely to be correct.
The study, which was published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, did confirm however, that autistic people in the UK do experience a reduced life expectancy. I told you the news wasn’t that great.
The UCL team looked at people who received an autism diagnosis between 1989 to 2019 and they used anonymised data from GP practices throughout the UK to do it. Of the autistic people they studied, 17,130 people did not have an intellectual disability whilst 6,450 participants did. These groups were compared with people of the same age and sex, who did not have an autism diagnosis.
The results were stark. They weren’t quite as bad as had previously been thought. But they were still pretty bad. It was found that autistic men without a learning disability had an average estimated life expectancy of 74.6 years. Autistic women without a learning disability were found to have a life expectancy of around 76.8 years. For people diagnosed with autism and learning disability, it was even worse. For men, the average estimated life expectancy was around 71.7 years and for women it was 69.6 years. The usual life expectancy for people living in the UK is around 80 years for men and around 83 years for women.
So, what’s the reason for this stark difference in life expectancy? The researchers think they have a decent idea as to why this is happening. What they don’t put it down to is autism itself. They don’t think there is anything inherent in the neurotype that causes premature death. But they do believe that the inequality that autistic people face is a factor, and they are calling for this to be addressed.
Professor Josh Stott (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences), the lead investigator of the study said: “However, we know that when they have the right support, many autistic people live long, healthy and happy lives.”
What is clear is that an awful lot of autistic people are not getting the right support and this is because of the barriers they face when trying to access it. Inequality is a killer, and the most frustrating thing about that, is we already have a cure. It’s just not being made available to enough people.
