Study to examine why autistic adults die prematurely

A new £10m (€12.8m) research programme will investigate why autistic adults are dying decades before their time. The five-year project planned by the British charity Autistica follows a study from Sweden that uncovered evidence of “shameful” premature death among people with the developmental disorder.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute analysed data on 27,000 people with autism and compared them with nearly three million non-autistic people.

They showed that, on average, autistic adults died 16 years younger than members of the general population. Those who also suffered from a learning disability died more than 30 years prematurely, at an average age of just 39.