Skip to content
Bramble

Health

Staysure travel insurance data shows rise in ADHD and autism declarations among over-50s

Figures from insurer Staysure show more over-50s declaring ADHD or autism on travel policies in the first seven months of 2026 than in all of 2025. Staysure says people are being diagnosed later in life; the Daily Express and Daily Mirror run near-identical reports.

2 outlets · 1L · 0C · 1R First reported Account updated
Image: Daily Express
Image: Daily Mirror

1 / 2

The story, neutrally told

Mixed · 2Travel insurer Staysure reported that the number of over-50s declaring ADHD or autism on its policies rose from 2,613 in 2025 to 4,676 between January and July 2026. Mixed · 2Both outlets say the number of people declaring ADHD or autism rose by 79% in seven months. Mixed · 2Across all ages, Staysure customers recorded 21,620 ADHD cases between January and July 2026, against 9,938 across the whole of 2025, and mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions were declared 335,739 times in the first seven months of 2026, a 72% rise on the previous year.

Mixed · 2Simon McCulloch, Staysure's chief growth officer, said the data shows conditions such as ADHD, autism, anxiety and depression have increased dramatically in a short time, and that people are "finally receiving a diagnosis including those in later life" and declaring it on their cover. Mixed · 2McCulloch urged travellers to declare all medical conditions, including medication, ongoing investigations and symptoms, warning that omissions risk leaving them without financial protection against emergency treatment bills abroad. Mixed · 2Dr Asimah Hanif, an NHS GP working with Staysure, said later diagnoses can happen because traits are overlooked or masked, awareness is greater and diagnostic criteria have changed, which improves recognition in adults.

Mixed · 2The articles place the figures alongside a surge in neurodiversity assessments across the UK, an estimated one in seven Brits being neurodivergent, and the release of an independent Department of Health and Social Care review into the diagnosis and overdiagnosis of neurodivergent conditions. Mixed · 2The figures are one insurer's customer declarations, and the comparison sets seven months of 2026 against a full year of 2025; neither article gives Staysure's total customer numbers or says whether its customer base changed.

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left1 outlet

Framing
The Daily Mirror presents the Staysure data as a surge in later-life diagnoses, leading with the over-50s being "finally receiving diagnosis".
Emphasis
The 79% rise, the over-50s figures and the insurer's and GP's explanations for later diagnosis.
Leaves out or plays down
Does not question whether insurer declarations measure diagnoses, or that seven months of 2026 are compared with a full year of 2025.
Charged language
“surge”“finally receiving diagnosis”
For example
“Fresh data suggests a sharp rise in later-life diagnoses of ADHD and Autism” — Daily Mirror

Centre0 outlets

No centre outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Right1 outlet

Framing
The Daily Express runs the same data with a stronger opening claim that declarations have almost tripled, and the same "finally receiving diagnosis" quote in the headline.
Emphasis
The scale of the rise, Staysure's advice to declare conditions and the link to the government overdiagnosis review.
Leaves out or plays down
Does not reconcile "almost tripled" with the 79% figure it reports, and does not note that the data covers one insurer's customers.
Charged language
“Sharp rise”“almost tripled”“finally receiving diagnosis”
For example
“The number of neurodivergent conditions declared on travel insurance policies have almost tripled” — Daily Express