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Autistic Dimensions Florida, a real time journey and journal, of the challenges and struggles of a multi-generational autistic collective, trying to remain within their community, while dealing with aging, physical disabilities and complex medical issues.

30 Jan 2024

Aging Across the Autistic Spectrum @Annual Review

Aging Across The Spectrum

https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-111323-090813

PDF: https://www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fulltext/devpsych/7/1/annurev-devpsych-111323-090813.pdf?expires=1768282443&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=E89172343657C2DE229B6EA75B149EEA

Aging in autistic populations is a historically neglected but now rapidly advancing area of research. This narrative review provides a broad overview of the current state of the field of aging on the autism spectrum by synthesizing and critically appraising findings from across a range of research priorities identified by autistic people and other stakeholder groups. These include

(a) the trajectory of core autistic features;

(b) health profiles, biological aging, and mortality;

(c) influential life experiences and life outcomes (including transition periods such as retirement and menopause and events such as trauma and periods of crisis);

(d) cognitive function, aging, and dementia; and

(e) quality of life and social support. Where possible, empirical research focusing on diagnosed autistic people is presented, but due to very high rates of underdiagnosis of autism in this demographic, trait-based research is also considered. Research specifically focusing on midlife (i.e., 40–64 years) and older age (i.e., 65 years and older) is presented where available, but due to a dearth of such research, lifespan studies (i.e., samples including middle-aged and older people, but not differentiating them) are also discussed.

This review concludes by identifying future research priorities, as well as key conceptual issues that researchers interested in the intersection of aging and autism should consider for this emerging and rapidly advancing area of research.

August 29, 2025 Copyright © 2025 by the author(s).This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information.

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