Health UK (Commonwealth Union) – A study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge has revealed that autistic individuals exhibit elevated rates of chronic physical health conditions affecting various parts throughout their bodies. This study, published in the journal Molecular Autism, carries significant implications for the clinical care of autistic individuals.
Prior research has demonstrated that autistic individuals experience premature mortality and a heightened prevalence of diverse physical health issues. Previously, it was thought that autistic individuals were primarily prone to specific conditions, such as gastrointestinal discomfort, sleep disturbances, and epilepsy/seizure disorders.
However, this new study diverges by exploring a much broader spectrum of health risks than previous research. It illuminates that autistic individuals face a considerably wider array of health vulnerabilities than previously recognized.
In particular, the study establishes that autistic individuals are more susceptible to physical health conditions encompassing all organ systems, including the brain (such as migraine), the gastrointestinal system (e.g., coeliac disease), and the endocrine system (e.g., endometriosis), in comparison to their non-autistic counterparts.
Dr Elizabeth Weir, a Research Associate at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, the lead of the team, says “This study emphasizes the increased health vulnerability of autistic people both in the types and number of conditions they may have. We now need to understand the causes of these increased risks, which are likely multifactorial in nature.”
This groundbreaking study marks the first to highlight that autistic individuals have a greater propensity than their non-autistic counterparts to experience ‘physical health multimorbidity,’ defined as the presence of two or more concurrent physical health conditions. These encompass conditions like fibromyalgia, which induces chronic body-wide pain, and polycystic ovarian syndrome, characterized by irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, excess hair growth, and acne in women, spanning various organ systems.
Conducted by a team at the ARC, the study employed an anonymized self-report survey to compare the experiences of 1,129 autistic individuals with those of 1,176 non-autistic individuals, all aged between 16 and 90 years. The participants were internationally sourced, with 67% originating from the UK.
The survey comprehensively assessed the risk of 60 different physical health conditions across nine distinct organ systems, which included gastrointestinal, endocrine, rheumatological, neurological, ocular, renal/hepatic, otolaryngological, haematological, and dermatological domains. The analysis accounted for various factors, including age, birth-assigned gender, country of residence, ethnicity, education level, alcohol consumption, smoking habits, body mass index, and family medical history.
The research team’s findings demonstrated that autistic individuals exhibited a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with medical conditions spanning all nine organ systems investigated when compared to non-autistic individuals. With regard to specific conditions, the study revealed that autistic individuals had elevated rates of 33 particular conditions relative to their non-autistic counterparts. These included conditions such as coeliac disease, gallbladder disease, endometriosis, syncope (fainting or passing out), vertigo, urinary incontinence, eczema, and iron deficiency anemia.
Dr John Ward, a visiting research scientist from the ARC in Cambridge, who carried the analysis, explained “This research adds to the body of evidence that the healthcare needs of autistic people are greater than those of non-autistic people. More research is required, particularly surrounding the early identification, and monitoring of chronic conditions.”
Additionally, this marks the inaugural epidemiological study revealing a potential higher prevalence of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) in autistic women as opposed to non-autistic women. EDS constitutes a cluster of disorders impacting connective tissues, manifesting in symptoms like joint hypermobility, easily dislocating joints, joint pain, joint clicking, skin prone to bruising, profound fatigue, digestive issues, dizziness, stretchable skin, delayed wound healing, organ prolapse, and hernias.
Furthermore, this new research substantiates earlier findings by illustrating that autistic individuals exhibit elevated rates of all central sensitivity syndromes. These syndromes represent a diverse array of conditions linked to central nervous system dysregulation, and they are more prevalent among autistic individuals when compared to their non-autistic counterparts. Among these central sensitivity syndromes are conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ), migraine, tinnitus, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and fibromyalgia.
