Canisius Aging and Autism Study

Welcome!

The Aging and Autism Study is focused on researching the association between autism and the aging process. The study has conducted research diving into the relationship of autism to the health of people as they age, the success of recruitment methods to recruit an aging population with potential autism characteristics, and the measurement of autism characteristics across the adult lifespan. 

The study has gained a participant base of over 1000 participants ranging from the age of 18 to 97. The study has also surpassed our goal of having more than 30 participants who are over the age of 65 and report elevated autism characteristics. 

The research team is currently working on a number of scholarly manuscripts and posters focusing on a wide range of our data and variables. You can see our published works and presentations in the respective website pages. The team at Canisius is looking forward to working with other institutions on more research projects with the data that our participants have provided in the future.

News:

Our manuscript, "The relationship of age to the Autism-Spectrum Quotient Scale in a large sample of adults", has been published in the journal Autism and Adulthood

Our manuscript, "Autism characteristics and self-reported health in older adulthood", has been published in the The Journals of Gerontology, Series B


Thank You!

To all of those that have supported the project, whether you are one of our many participants or have worked on the research, thank you! Your time and participation is greatly appreciated and helps us get a better insight into the relationship between autism and health across the lifespan.  At this time, due to the global pandemic, our in-person assessments are on pause. Though we are not collecting new data, we are focusing on moving papers and data analysis forward. This research would not be possible without our participants and we look forward to being able to invite you to the research lab soon!


Want to do more? 

We are looking for interested individuals to serve on an advisory group as we prepare our next grants to investigate the risk and resilience of autism for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.