Researchers have found that people with autism appeared to be greater risk of a fatal injury than the general U.S. population. Using information from National Vital Statistics System, researchers found that 28 percent of the deaths of people with autism reported from 1999 to 2014 were caused by injury. The main causes were suffocation, asphyxiation, and drowning. The risk of accidental injury was "particularly high" for children with autism who were younger than age 15.

The study, by two researchers at Columbia University in New York, appeared in the American Journal of Public Health. (See abstract below).