Smith Gillian S, Fleming Michael, Kinnear Deborah, Henderson Angela, Pell Jill P, Melville Craig, Cooper Sally-Ann
University of Glasgow, UK.
Autism. 2021 Jan;25(1):300-304. doi: 10.1177/1362361320944037. Epub 2020 Aug 24.
There are few studies on the deaths of children and young people with autism; some studies on children and adults combined suggest that those with autism may have higher death rates than other people. More children are diagnosed with autism than in the past, suggesting that there are now more children with milder autism who have the diagnosis than in the past, so studies in the past might not apply to the current generation of children and young people diagnosed with autism. We examined the rates of death in children and young people in Scotland using recorded information in Scotland's annual pupil census, linked to the National Records of Scotland deaths register, between 2008 and 2015. In total, 9754 (1.2%) out of 787,666 pupils had autism. Six pupils with autism died in the study period, compared with 458 other pupils. This was equivalent to 16 per 100,000 for pupils with autism and 13 per 100,000 pupils without autism; hence, the rate of death was very similar. In the pupils with autism, the most common causes of death were diseases of the nervous system, whereas they were from external causes in the comparison pupils. The autism group had some deaths due to epilepsy which might have been prevented by good quality care. We cautiously conclude that the death rate in the current generation of children and young adults with autism is no higher than for other children, but that even in this high-income country, some deaths could be prevented by high quality care.
关于患有自闭症的儿童和青少年死亡情况的研究较少；一些对儿童和成人综合进行的研究表明，自闭症患者的死亡率可能高于其他人。与过去相比，现在被诊断出自闭症的儿童更多，这意味着与过去相比，现在有更多症状较轻的自闭症儿童得到了诊断，所以过去的研究可能不适用于当前这一代被诊断出自闭症的儿童和青少年。我们利用2008年至2015年间苏格兰年度学生普查的记录信息，并将其与苏格兰国家死亡记录登记册相链接，对苏格兰儿童和青少年的死亡率进行了研究。在787,666名学生中，共有9754名（1.2%）患有自闭症。在研究期间，有6名患有自闭症的学生死亡，而其他学生中有458人死亡。这相当于自闭症学生的死亡率为每10万人中有16人死亡，非自闭症学生的死亡率为每10万人中有13人死亡；因此，死亡率非常相似。在患有自闭症的学生中，最常见的死亡原因是神经系统疾病，而在对照组学生中，死亡原因则是外部因素。自闭症组有一些因癫痫导致的死亡，如果能提供高质量的护理，这些死亡可能是可以避免的。我们谨慎地得出结论，当前这一代患有自闭症的儿童和青少年的死亡率并不高于其他儿童，但即使在这个高收入国家，通过高质量的护理也可以避免一些死亡。
