These numbers do not look good:
A study out of Sweden completed late last year revealed that people with autism died an average of 16 years earlier than those without the condition....
Between 1987 and 2009 scientists from the Karolinska Institute looked at more than 27,000 people in Sweden diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
This group was compared with a group of 2.6 million people without ASD.
During that time, less than 1 percent of the general population died. The mortality rate for the group with ASD was 2.5 percent.
...
What the researchers also discovered was that average life expectancy for the general population was about 70 years old. In the ASD group, the average age was about 54.
Perhaps more startling, people with ASD that also had cognitive disabilities had an average life expectancy just under 40 years old.
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Previous studies had shown that 30 percent to 50 percent of people with ASD have considered suicide, according to a report issued last week by the nonprofit organization Autistica.
The suicide rate is higher among girls with ASD and people with milder forms of the condition.