Among Americans newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before age 20, about one in seven also had an ADHD diagnosis in their medical records. Autism turned up in roughly one in 20. Both rates were far higher than in matched young people without diabetes.
The finding comes from an analysis of US health records presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Milan.
Researchers tracked 4.2 million people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over roughly two decades. They compared them against a matched group of 17.1 million people without diabetes.
In young people without diabetes, ADHD appeared in about 7 percent of records. Autism showed up in under 2 percent. So the diabetes group carried roughly double the ADHD rate and roughly triple the autism rate of their peers.
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A condition that used to be adult
Type 2 diabetes was long thought of as a disease of middle age. That has shifted.
The CDC reports that new type 2 cases in Americans under 20 rose by more than half between the early 2000s and the mid-2010s. The sharpest increases were seen in racial and ethnic minority groups.
Why the two conditions may overlap
Researchers cannot yet say what drives the link. A 2023 meta-analysis in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews found that people with ADHD had more than twice the odds of developing type 2 diabetes than their peers.
The analysis drew on nearly 5.7 million people and included a Swedish sibling study, which helped rule out shared family factors.
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The overlap is thought to involve shared metabolic pathways together with the day-to-day demands of diabetes management. Blood-sugar control asks for steady routines around meals, sleep and medication.
Executive-function difficulties, sleep problems and irregular eating patterns are common in ADHD and autism. Each can push blood sugar in the wrong direction.
What clinicians are being urged to change
Lead author Dr. Jonathan Goldney of the University of Leicester Diabetes Research Centre said "Health systems are failing to fully meet the needs of people living with both early-onset T2D and neurodiversity, both of which are linked to poorer health outcomes."
He called for care to be tailored to neurodivergent patients. That could mean clearer written material, longer appointments and help building daily routines.
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The analysis is observational and cannot prove that ADHD or autism causes type 2 diabetes, or the other way around. The researchers relied on hospital records, which can contain coding errors, and the sample may not represent the wider population.
Young people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and parents of neurodivergent teenagers, can ask their diabetes team whether the clinic offers adjustments such as extra appointment time, plain-language instructions and structured routine support.
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This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.