ESRC UBEL-DTP Postdoctoral Fellowship (Stewart/Mandy) - Quality of Life, Social Isolation, and Loneliness in Middle-aged and Older Autistic Adults

大约1%（或650，000）的英国人口患有自闭症，其中约240，000人年龄超过50岁。尽管在人口中有这么多的中年和老年自闭症患者，而且数量还在不断增长，但人们对自闭症患者年老时会发生什么却知之甚少。由于老年标志着一个健康和支持需求变化的时期，有关自闭症老龄化的信息对于确保自闭症患者获得所需的支持，确保他们长寿和幸福的生活至关重要。一个重要的问题是孤立的经历及其与心理健康状况不佳的联系。年轻的自闭症患者经常报告感到社交孤立和孤独，这对心理健康和生活质量产生了深远的负面影响。虽然社交孤立和孤独可能发生在任何年龄，但随着年龄的增长，这种经历变得更加普遍，英国超过200万50岁以上的人社交联系不佳。尽管如此，中年和老年自闭症成年人是否有这些经历的风险增加还有待研究。因此，拟议的研究将解决有关自闭症谱系老化的重要问题，并将告知自闭症患者在变老时可能需要什么样的支持。为了实现这一重要的总体目标，在此奖学金期间将采取几个步骤：首先，将分析由400多名中老年自闭症和非自闭症患者组成的大型数据集（于2019年春季收集）。这种横断面分析将探讨社会隔离，孤独，心理健康和生活质量的经验。还将探讨保护人们免受社会孤立和孤独的因素。第二，我们将在2023年春季重新联系这些参与者，并要求他们重复原始的在线调查，这将有助于纵向分析社交孤立，孤独，心理健康和生活质量如何随着年龄的变化而变化。第三，将分析30名中老年自闭症和非自闭症患者的生活质量访谈记录（于2019年冬季收集）。主题分析将用于研究影响自闭症和非自闭症参与者之间生活质量的经验的相似性和差异。这项研究的结果将被广泛分享，包括同行评审期刊，会议演讲和研究团队创建的易于阅读的信息图表。奖学金期间还将开展其他活动，例如继续发展自闭症和老龄化研究人员网络，该网络成立于2019年底。该网络旨在促进研究小组之间的合作和资源汇集，这将有助于扩大自闭症和老龄化研究的规模和范围。

Approximately ~1% (or 650,000) of the UK population are autistic, with ~240,000 of them being over the age of 50. Despite this large and growing number of middle-age and older autistic adults in the population, little is known about what happens to autistic people when they grow old. As older age marks a period of health and support-need changes, information about autistic ageing is vital to ensure autistic people receive the support they need, to ensure they live long and happy lives. One important issue is the experience of isolation and its link with poor mental health. Younger autistic people often report feeling socially isolated and lonely, which has been found to have a profound negative impact on mental health and quality of life. While social isolation and loneliness can occur at any age, the experiences become more common with age, with over 2million people age 50+ in the UK having poor social contact. Despite this, it has yet to be examined whether middle-age and older autistic adults are at increased risk of these experiences. As such, the proposed research will address important questions about ageing on the autism spectrum, and will inform what type of support autistic people may need as they grow old.To address this important overarching aim, several steps will be taken during this fellowship:- First, a large dataset (collected in Spring 2019) comprised of over 400 middle-aged and older autistic and non-autistic people will be analysed. This cross-sectional analysis will explore the experiences of social isolation, loneliness, mental health, and quality of life. Factors that protect people from social isolation and loneliness will also be explored.- Second, we will recontact these participants in Spring 2023 and ask them to repeat the original online survey, which will enable the longitudinal analysis of how experiences of social isolation, loneliness, mental health, and quality of life change with age.- Third, interview transcripts exploring quality of life (collected in Winter 2019) from 30 middle-aged and older autistic and non-autistic people will be analysed. Thematic analysis will be used to examine the similarities and the differences in the experiences that influence quality of life between the autistic and non-autistic participants.The findings from this research will be shared widely, including in peer reviewed journals, conference presentations, and in easy-to-read infographics created by the research team.Additional activities will also be undertaken during the fellowship, such as the continued development of an autism and ageing researcher network, which was founded in late 2019. This network will aim to foster collaborations between research groups and the pooling of resources, which will help improve the scale and the scope of the autism and ageing research being conducted.