In October 2024, OAR’s Board of Directors authorized funding for six applied autism research grants and one autism resource grant. The new research grants total $338,844, bringing OAR’s total research funding to $5.3 million since 2002. This article is the fifth of the previews to be featured in The OARacle this year. Over half of autistic students display challenging…
Collecting Autistic Peoples’ Health Records CBS News reported that on Friday, April 25, a Department of Health and Human Services official walked back an earlier National Institutes of Health (NIH) announcement that the health department is creating an autism registry. “We are not creating an autism registry. The real-world data platform will link existing datasets…
In October 2024, OAR’s Board of Directors authorized funding for six applied autism research grants and one autism resource grant. These new research grants, totaling $338,844, bring OAR’s total research funding to $5.3 million since 2002. This article is the fifth of the previews to be featured in The OARacle this year. In a 2014 study of newly diagnosed…
Across the lifespan, autistic people are more likely to have a diagnosis of obesity than non-autistic people. For this article, “obesity” refers to the medical diagnosis of an elevated body mass index. It is important to be mindful of variety in preferences related to term use (for example, a preference for “larger body size” instead…
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning a large study to look into potential connections between autism and vaccines, according to a March 10 Reuters article, even though extensive past studies have found no links. While the CDC has not provided details about the study, The Washington Post reported that the…
Happy Autism Acceptance Month! This year, OAR has set some ambitious and actionable goals for promoting autism awareness and acceptance across the country. Here’s how we can work together to make a difference. Goal 1: Provide informational resources to families of autistic individuals. OAR’s collection of Life Journey Through Autism guidebooks offers high-quality, research-based information…
On February 13, President Donald Trump established through executive order the Make America Healthy Again Commission with a charge to investigate and address “the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis, with an initial focus on childhood chronic diseases,” including autism. He selected Robert Kennedy Jr., who was recently confirmed by Congress as Secretary of…
An estimated 61.8 million people, or one in 127, around the world were autistic in 2021, according to new data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 recently published in The Lancet. As noted on the Learning Disability Today website, this estimate is substantially higher than the 2019 estimate of one in 271. While…
As we celebrate the beginning of 2025, OAR is looking ahead to the ambitious goals it has set for this year, including goals for Autism Acceptance Month. Join us to promote autism awareness and acceptance in your community and across the country! Goal 1: Provide informational resources to families of autistic individuals. OAR’s collection of…
