Having neurodevelopmental condition could be linked with early death, study suggests

New Delhi, Nov 7 (PTI) Having a neurodevelopmental condition such as autism and ADHD could be related with a nearly five times higher chance of dying before age 25, compared to those without, according to a study conducted in New Zealand.

While relative risk between the two groups is high, it is important to remember that deaths in this group remain rare, said lead author Nick Bowden, from the University of Otago's department of paediatrics and child health.

Symptoms of neurodevelopmental conditions can emerge in early childhood, impairing one's development in skills such as language, communication or behaviour.

Social communication and behaviour is affected in autism, while ability to pay attention and focus on a task and emotion regulation is impaired in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Using the StatsNZ database, the researchers followed nearly nine lakh children born between 1995 and 2009 until 2019.

About 40,000 (4.5 per cent) of the total had a neurodevelopmental condition, identified from hospital records, specialist mental health services, disability support databases, or through prescriptions.

"Mortality risk was significantly higher (4.67 times) for youth with NDCs (neurodevelopmental conditions) compared with those without NDCs," the authors wrote in the study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics.

Death risk was also found to be higher among females with neurodevelopmental conditions, compared to females without.

The risks also varied according to the condition -- doubling for children with ADHD and a more than eight-fold risk for learning and motor disorders, the researchers said.

Causes for death also differed by condition, with medical causes posing the greatest risk -- about 12 times higher compared to those without neurodevelopmental conditions, the team found.

The higher risk of deaths due to medical causes points to challenges faced in managing health problems that can occur simultaneously in the affected individuals -- such as respiratory, neurological, and gastrointestinal conditions, said co-author Dr Colette Muir, developmental paediatrician at Starship Child Health in Auckland.

A study published in January this year in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggested a reduced life expectancy among adults who were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood. Researchers from the University College London estimated that men having the condition may live about seven years fewer than men in the general population and women nine years fewer. PTI KRS KRS MPL MAH MAH