College of Health

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.

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.

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.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Dungeness crab fishermen are at high risk for on-the-job injury, but having a metal bar to bang crab pots against as they harvest can help them prevent injury, an Oregon State University study found.

CORVALLIS, Ore.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — An Oregon State University study published Friday found that traffic congestion is linked to decreased birthweight for full-term babies born to parents living near areas of heavy traffic, such as highways and freeways.

Though the decrease was relatively small, researchers say the cumulative effect of stop-and-go traffic on top of baseline air pollution from cars and other environmental contaminants could have significant consequences at the population level, affecting up to 1.3 million babies per year based on location.

Rates of traumatic injury among workers in the Oregon agricultural and construction sectors are significantly higher during periods of high heat compared with periods of more moderate weather, a recent Oregon State University study found.

The results underscore the importance of providing robust safety protections for outdoor workers, especially as extreme heat events become more common with climate change, researchers said.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Chronic experiences of childhood sexual abuse are more likely to lead to adverse health and life achievement outcomes in adults than single instances of childhood sexual trauma, a recent Oregon State University study found.

The results point to the importance of understanding long-term trauma and the associated health care needs of patients, instead of relying solely on one-time checklists like “Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)” often used by practitioners to gauge patient well-being, researchers say.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — People who live in socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods are about 20% less likely to conceive in any given menstrual cycle compared with people living in neighborhoods with more resources, a recent Oregon State University study found.

The study measured “fecundability,” which is the monthly probability of getting pregnant, among couples attempting conception without the use of fertility treatments.