AGXStarseed
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(Not written by me)
People with autism live only half as long as the general population, according to a controversial new study.
British researchers warned that the US study probably contained ‘invisible’ data’ where people with autism who lived to old age did not have their disability recorded on their death certificate. (Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)
The average age at death for individuals with the disability was 36 years old, compared with 72 for everyone else, researchers in the United States said.
Deaths in autistic people increased 700 per cent in the past 16 years and were three times as likely as in the general population to be caused by injuries, the Columbia University study found. The findings are published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
Of the deaths in individuals with autism, 28 per cent were attributed to injury, most often by suffocation, followed by asphyxiation, and drowning.
Together, these three causes accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total injury mortality in children with autism. More than 40 per cent occurred in homes or residential institutions.
Children with autism are 160 times as likely to die from drowning as other children – it is the leading cause of death for autistic children – so the researchers recommend providing swimming classes immediately following a diagnosis.
“Once a child is diagnosed with autism, usually between 2 and 3 years of age, pediatricians and parents should immediately help enroll the child in swimming classes, before any behavioral therapy, speech therapy or occupational therapy,” said the study’s senior author Dr Guohua Li.
“Swimming ability for kids with autism is an imperative survival skill. With impaired communication and social skills, autistic kids tend to seek relief of their heightened anxiety from the serenity of water bodies. Unfortunately, this behaviour too often leads to tragedies.”
The researchers analysed more than 32 million death certificates in the US National Vital Statistics System, and identified 1,367 individuals (1,043 males and 324 females) with a diagnosis of autism who died between 1999 and 2014.
‘Limited’ study
Co-author Joseph Guan said: “Our study was limited to death certificate data. While the numbers are startling, autism as a contributing cause of death is likely undercounted because of the accuracy of information on death certificates filed by coroners varies.”
Dr Li said: “Despite the marked increase in the annual number of deaths occurring, autism-related deaths still may be severely underreported, particularly deaths from intentional injury such as assaults, homicide, and suicide.”
UK-based experts had concerns over the study’s methodology, pointing out that as 1 in 68 people in the US are diagnosed autistic, there must be a lot more autistic people who died where the death certificate does not record their disability.
Therefore those that have recorded autism are very exceptional, unrepresentative cases – probably those where some aspect of their autism profile was strongly connected to death.
So autistic people who lived longer and/or whose death was not autism related are invisible in the data, hence the alarming results, one said. The 36 years age at death is also likely “very skewed” for the same reason, but also because people who lived longer will be from generations where diagnosis was rare.
Carol Povey, Director of the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, said: “We have some concerns about the conclusions drawn by researchers in this paper.
“It’s important that we address the health inequalities identified by other research between autistic people and the rest of the population.
“But we believe that the findings of this particular piece of research are alarmist if taken at face value and require further investigation before their implications for health or other interventions for autistic people can be fully understood.”
Source: Autistic people live half as long as everyone else, US study claims - The i newspaper online iNews
People with autism live only half as long as the general population, according to a controversial new study.
British researchers warned that the US study probably contained ‘invisible’ data’ where people with autism who lived to old age did not have their disability recorded on their death certificate. (Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)
The average age at death for individuals with the disability was 36 years old, compared with 72 for everyone else, researchers in the United States said.
Deaths in autistic people increased 700 per cent in the past 16 years and were three times as likely as in the general population to be caused by injuries, the Columbia University study found. The findings are published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
Of the deaths in individuals with autism, 28 per cent were attributed to injury, most often by suffocation, followed by asphyxiation, and drowning.
Together, these three causes accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total injury mortality in children with autism. More than 40 per cent occurred in homes or residential institutions.
Children with autism are 160 times as likely to die from drowning as other children – it is the leading cause of death for autistic children – so the researchers recommend providing swimming classes immediately following a diagnosis.
“Once a child is diagnosed with autism, usually between 2 and 3 years of age, pediatricians and parents should immediately help enroll the child in swimming classes, before any behavioral therapy, speech therapy or occupational therapy,” said the study’s senior author Dr Guohua Li.
“Swimming ability for kids with autism is an imperative survival skill. With impaired communication and social skills, autistic kids tend to seek relief of their heightened anxiety from the serenity of water bodies. Unfortunately, this behaviour too often leads to tragedies.”
The researchers analysed more than 32 million death certificates in the US National Vital Statistics System, and identified 1,367 individuals (1,043 males and 324 females) with a diagnosis of autism who died between 1999 and 2014.
‘Limited’ study
Co-author Joseph Guan said: “Our study was limited to death certificate data. While the numbers are startling, autism as a contributing cause of death is likely undercounted because of the accuracy of information on death certificates filed by coroners varies.”
Dr Li said: “Despite the marked increase in the annual number of deaths occurring, autism-related deaths still may be severely underreported, particularly deaths from intentional injury such as assaults, homicide, and suicide.”
UK-based experts had concerns over the study’s methodology, pointing out that as 1 in 68 people in the US are diagnosed autistic, there must be a lot more autistic people who died where the death certificate does not record their disability.
Therefore those that have recorded autism are very exceptional, unrepresentative cases – probably those where some aspect of their autism profile was strongly connected to death.
So autistic people who lived longer and/or whose death was not autism related are invisible in the data, hence the alarming results, one said. The 36 years age at death is also likely “very skewed” for the same reason, but also because people who lived longer will be from generations where diagnosis was rare.
Carol Povey, Director of the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, said: “We have some concerns about the conclusions drawn by researchers in this paper.
“It’s important that we address the health inequalities identified by other research between autistic people and the rest of the population.
“But we believe that the findings of this particular piece of research are alarmist if taken at face value and require further investigation before their implications for health or other interventions for autistic people can be fully understood.”
Source: Autistic people live half as long as everyone else, US study claims - The i newspaper online iNews
