Cardiovascular disease risk factors in autistic adults: The impact of sleep quality and antipsychotic medication use.
Lauren Bishop, Rebecca A Charlton, Kiley J McLean and 3 others
PMID 36490360WHAT IT FOUND
Poorer sleep quality was associated with more cardiovascular risk factors and higher BMI in autistic adults, while antipsychotic use was linked to diabetes but not other risks.
Perceived stress showed no association. These are cross-sectional correlations, not proof that treating sleep or stopping medication reduces cardiovascular disease.
Key findings
01Poorer sleep quality was associated with a higher total number of cardiovascular disease risk factors and an increased likelihood of having a BMI in the overweight or obesity range.
02Use of antipsychotic medications was associated with an increased likelihood of having diabetes, but was not associated with the total number of cardiovascular risk factors, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or overweight/obesity.
03Perceived stress was not significantly associated with the number of cardiovascular risk factors or any individual risk factor.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if poor sleep causes cardiovascular risk or if other factors drive both. Cardiovascular risk factors and medication use were self-reported and not confirmed by medical records, which may lead to over- or under-reporting. The sample excluded autistic adults with intellectual disabilities and was a convenience sample with more women than men, limiting generalizability. Important lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and diet were not measured, so their role as confounders cannot be ruled out. The subgroup of participants taking antipsychotics was small (15% of the sample), which may have reduced the power to detect associations with other risk factors.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK) and NIH grants. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these associations as causal evidence that improving sleep or stopping antipsychotics will reduce cardiovascular risk. The study design cannot prove directionality, and the antipsychotic findings were limited to diabetes in a small subgroup.