Cerebral palsy is usually filed under childhood conditions, and much of the care built around it ends at 18 or 21. The body keeps aging after that. Over the past decade, researchers at the University of Michigan have used insurance and survey records covering millions of Americans to ask what happens to adults with CP in their 40s, 50s and 60s.
The answers point the same way. A 2015 JAMA research letter found higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart conditions and stroke in adults with CP. A 2022 study found that adults aged 45 to 64 with CP received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia at 9 times the unadjusted rate of their peers over three years.
Both figures circulate online without their fine print. This post traces each one to the paper it came from, and lists the checks adults with CP can raise with a primary care doctor.
“Clinical guidelines for early screening of cognitive function among individuals with CP need updating, and preventative and/or therapeutic services should be used to reduce the risk of ADRD.”
— Mahmoudi et al., Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 2022
Heart and metabolic disease: where the numbers come from
The 2015 JAMA letter used a national survey from 2002 to 2010 covering 1,015 adults with CP. Compared with adults without CP, and adjusted for age, they had more diabetes (9.2% vs 6.3%), high blood pressure (30.0% vs 22.1%), other heart conditions (15.1% vs 9.1%) and stroke (4.6% vs 2.3%).
The widely repeated “41% vs 30%” comes from a 2020 paper in The American Journal of Medicine. Over four years, 41.5% of privately insured adults with cerebral palsy or spina bifida developed a heart, blood sugar or cholesterol condition, against 30.6% of adults without either. The two groups were counted together, so it is not a CP-only figure.
Dementia: what “nine times” means
Mahmoudi and colleagues (2022) followed 5,176 adults aged 45 and older with CP in US insurance claims from 2007 to 2017. Over three years, 1.8% of those aged 45 to 64 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, against 0.2% of peers without CP. That is the 9 times. After matching people on age, sex and other health conditions, the risk was still 4.73 times higher in that age group.
A 2018 UK study of 1,705 adults with CP counted only 51 new dementia cases and found no significant difference overall. Risk was higher in those who also had an intellectual disability or epilepsy. Neither study proves cause.
Bones belong on the list
A 2025 review of 17 studies found osteoporosis (thinning bone) in 5% of adults with CP in general samples and 43% of those seen in outpatient clinics. Low mobility, nutrition and seizure medicines were the main risk factors.
Why the move to adult care leaves gaps
A 2025 commentary by Hurvitz, Wyeth and Peterson notes that adult doctors often lack training in conditions long treated as pediatric. A May 2026 review of 159 studies on adults with CP found cognition studied in only 12.
Activity, and checks worth raising
The same commentary ties less activity and more sitting to early chronic disease in adults with CP. A physical therapist can adapt exercise to any level of mobility. Checks that match the conditions studied include:
- Blood pressure at each visit
- Cholesterol (a lipid panel)
- Blood sugar (glucose or A1C)
- A bone density scan
- A note of any change in memory or thinking, as a baseline
