Neurodiversity, Obesity, and Learning from Lived Experiences

“People with neurodiversity have a greater risk of obesity, yet the involvement in policy development and research of people with neurodiversity and obesity is minimal.”

Stuart Flint, Joe Nadglowski, Kim Murray, and Julia Simonetti tell us in the latest issue of Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology that collecting data on lived experiences from people who face marginalization is “crucially important.” But the literature on the overlap of obesity and people with neurodivergent identities is sparse. A new study in the Journal of Public Health identifies a 64% increased risk for obesity among neurodivergent individuals and a four-fold higher risk for diabetes.

Given this overlap, researchers, clinicians, and policy advocates should be paying more attention.

Compounded Stigma

An obvious reason for better attention to the subject is the overlapping and synergistic stigma. Flint and colleagues write:

“Empirical evidence shows that people with obesity and people with neurodiversity often experience stigma in health-care settings, and people with both obesity and neurodiversity might experience compounded forms of discrimination.”

The Lens of Lived Experiences for Health Challenges

Lived experiences offer an especially helpful tool for addressing emergent health challenges. A case in point is the COVID-19 pandemic we are all so eager to forget. But forgetting brings a very real risk of a calamitous repeat of the pandemic experience.

In a recent IJO publication, Friedrich Jassil, Stuart Flint, and Adrian Brown found that people living with obesity faced distinct challenges in practicing and maintaining health-related behaviours during the initial COVID-19 lockdown in the UK.

Understanding diverse lived experiences, then, can clearly be essential to protecting and promoting public health. All we have to do is look and listen with genuine curiosity.

Click here for the perspective from Flint et al in Lancet D&E, here for the JPH study of overlapping risks, and here for the new paper from Jassil, Fling, and Brown.

Autistic Mind, illustration by MissLunaRose12, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Subscribe by email to follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health, obesity, and policy.

May 4, 2025