College of Health

About the OSU College of Health: The college creates connections in teaching, research and community engagement while advancing knowledge, policies and practices that improve individual and population health in communities across the state and around the world.

For many low-income single moms, government aid serves as their paid family leave, study shows

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The majority of low-income single mothers in Oregon who rely on federal cash assistance around the time of childbirth are in the program for less than a year, suggesting they’re using it as a form of paid family leave, Oregon State University research shows.

The first-of-its-kind study has important implications in the state, which in 2023 established a taxpayer-funded paid family leave program, and throughout the United States as poverty has a particularly high incidence among young children.

Radon, even at levels below EPA guideline for mitigation, is linked to childhood leukemia

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A study of more than 700 counties across multiple U.S. states found a link between childhood leukemia and levels of decaying radon gas, including those lower than the federal guideline for mitigation.

The findings are important because there are few established risk factors for cancer in children and the role of the environment has not been explored much, said Oregon State University’s Matthew Bozigar, who led the research.

Oregon State dog-training program helps increase physical activity among kids with disabilities

CORVALLIS, Ore. — By engaging regularly with their family dog and teaching it a series of tricks and commands, children with developmental disabilities experienced a significant increase in their daily physical activity, a new study from Oregon State University researchers found.

Children in the experimental group increased their moderate to vigorous physical activity by 17 minutes per day, while simultaneously reducing their sedentary time by nearly an hour per day.

Oregon State study sheds light on links between cognitive and motor skill development in children with autism

CORVALLIS, Ore. — A recent study by Oregon State University researchers highlighted the ways motor skills and cognitive skills develop in connection with each other in young children with autism, and found an opportunity for behavioral and physical therapists to work together to improve care.

OSU study: Veterans’ PTSD symptoms affected by factors like service appraisal, social support

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Military veterans’ individual perceptions of their combat experiences and the social supports they receive when they return home are greater predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms than the specific conflict in which they served, a new Oregon State University study found.

College students in minoritized groups feel less confident about peer support in event of sexual assault, study finds

CORVALLIS, Ore. — College students who identify as part of minoritized groups have more negative perceptions about how their peers might react if they were to disclose experiences of sexual violence, a recent Oregon State University study found.

Researchers say the results indicate a need for colleges and universities to take a more intersectional approach — considering the ways students’ racial, gender and sexual identities may overlap and affect their experience — in their efforts to provide safe environments for victims of sexual violence.

FDA approving drugs after fewer trials, providing less information to public, OSU studies find

CORVALLIS, Ore. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is approving more novel pharmaceutical drugs based on single clinical trials and with less public disclosure about those trials than was the norm just a few years ago, a pair of recent studies from Oregon State University found.

Researchers agree it is important to minimize delays in making treatments for diseases such as cancer available to patients, but they say their findings point to a need for greater transparency around how drugs receive approval.

Public funding helped increase available child care slots in Oregon since 2020, OSU report finds

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Available child care slots for young children in Oregon grew by almost 5% from March 2020 to December 2022, thanks in part to increased public funding for child care, a new report from Oregon State University found.

In total, OSU researchers tallied 71,153 child care slots for ages 0-5 in 2022, up from 67,981 in 2020. But there is still work to pursue to increase child care throughout the state, state officials say.

Subscribe to College of Health