UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Investigation of Environmental Hazards Near Urban Agricultural Sites and Food Handling Behaviors of Consumers
    (2018) Shargo, Isabel H; Wilson, Sacoby; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Despite knowledge of the presence of environmental contaminants at legacy sites including Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities, land restoration sites (LRPs), and Superfund sites, limited research has been done to investigate proximity to environmental hazards and potential exposure risks of consumers to urban-grown produce. We conducted a spatial analysis on the distribution of legacy sites, healthy food priority areas, and urban farms by various sociodemographic factors and surveyed consumers to assess food handling behaviors. We found that more residents were unemployed, had less than a high school diploma and had a lower median household income in census tracts that hosted an urban farm and a TRI facility. Also, across most socio demographic groups, more than half of the individuals stated they ‘always’ washed the produce items surveyed. This research provides insight into the distribution of environmental hazards near urban farms and food handling behaviors of consumers of urban-grown produce.
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    COUNTY AND CENSUS TRACT SOCIOECONOMIC ATTRIBUTES OF ESOPHAGEAL ADENOCARCINOMA CASES SEER 15 (2000-2007)
    (2011) Ghazarian, Armen Alex; Saksvig, Brit I; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) incidence rates have increased among U.S. men. We examined associations between area-level socioeconomic attributes and stage at diagnosis, an important prognostic predictor of survival time. Logistic regression models were developed to estimate odds ratios (OR) adjusted for age, race, gender and year of diagnosis and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for localized and regional versus distant stage by census tract and county level socioeconomic attributes. At the county level, a high percent of foreign born population was associated with distant stage EAC: >15.4%-26.6%, (OR=1.15, 95% CI: 1.04-1.28) and >26.6% (OR 1.16, 95% CI: 1.03-1.31). Median household income from $40.8-$45.6K (OR=1.14, 95% CI: 1.01-1.28) was also associated with distant stage EAC. Conversely, residence in an urban county was associated with localized or regional stage EAC (OR=0.90, 95% CI: 0.82-0.98). Findings regarding area level disparities in EAC stage may inform cancer control efforts.