People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at a young age are much more likely to have autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new research. The findings reveal a notable association between early diabetes diagnoses and neurodivergent conditions.

More than 14% of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before age 20 also had an ADHD diagnosis. Among similarly aged people without diabetes, the figure was close to 7%, meaning the rate was more than twice as high in the diabetes group.

Autism also appeared among people who developed the blood sugar condition early in life. Researchers found that 5.7% of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before age 20 had also been diagnosed with autism.

Type 2 diabetes is a common blood sugar illness that is often associated with obesity. According to the Mayo Clinic, it develops when the body loses its ability to use insulin properly or cannot produce enough insulin.

The research did not establish that neurodivergence causes type 2 diabetes. Researchers said several factors could contribute to the observed association, including sleep disturbances, medication use, mental health conditions, barriers to healthcare and lower levels of physical activity.

Lead author Jonathan Goldney is a fellow at the University of Leicester Diabetes Research Center in the U.K. He emphasized that the findings should not be interpreted as a prediction that most neurodivergent people will eventually develop the disease.

“Our findings by no means suggest that most people with a neurodivergent condition will go on to develop type 2 diabetes (T2D),” Goldney said. His comments were included in a news release about the research.

Goldney said the higher prevalence of neurodiversity among people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes earlier in life should be considered when healthcare services are planned. Accounting for neurodiversity, he said, could reduce barriers that make accessing and engaging with healthcare more difficult.

The findings are being presented in Milan during the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. The research remains preliminary because it has not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal.

For the study, Goldney and his colleagues examined medical records belonging to 4.2 million people in the United States. Each person included in that group had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at some point during the previous 20 years.

Researchers matched about 3.4 million of those patients with people of similar ages selected from a much larger comparison group. That group included 17.1 million people who had never received a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

Across age groups, both autism and ADHD were more prevalent among people who had type 2 diabetes. However, the rates of neurodivergence declined sharply as age increased, making the association particularly evident among people diagnosed with diabetes earlier in life.

The researchers also examined dyslexia and found higher rates among people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Unlike the patterns involving autism and ADHD, the age at which diabetes developed did not appear to affect the association with dyslexia.

Goldney described meeting the healthcare needs of people living with both diabetes and autism or ADHD as a necessary challenge. His comments focused on making diabetes services accessible to neurodivergent patients as more people receive type 2 diabetes diagnoses earlier in life.

“Providing healthcare for type 2 diabetes in a suitable way for neurodivergent individuals is critical to making healthcare more accessible for everyone, particularly as more people are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes earlier in life,” Goldney said.