<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;}
h1
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
font-weight:bold;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#467886;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.Heading1Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1";
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:none;
font-weight:bold;}
span.EmailStyle20
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ligatures:none;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style>
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">THESIS DEFENSE NOTICE</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">GEOSPATIAL SYSTEM ENGINEERING PROGRAM</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCES</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING OBESITY SELF-AWARENESS IN CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS THROUGH SPATIAL ANALYSIS</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">SPEAKER: Emily Brennan</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">ADVISOR: Dr. Lucy Huang</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">DATE: Friday, November 14th</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">TIME: 9:00 AM (UC Central Time)</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">PLACE: NRC 1232 Conference Room</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<h1 align="center" style="margin:0in;text-align:center;line-height:24.0pt;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;font-weight:normal"><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<h1 align="center" style="margin:0in;text-align:center;line-height:24.0pt;background:white">
<a name="_Toc213613778"></a><a name="_Toc467069188"></a><a name="_Toc127961301"></a><a name="_Toc127961431"></a><span style="mso-bookmark:_Toc213613778"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;font-weight:normal">ABSTRACT</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p style="margin:0in;line-height:24.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;line-height:24.0pt;background:white"><a name="_Hlk105748581"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Obesity is an increasing public health concern in Corpus Christi, Texas with rates projected to reach 50% by 2030
if no interventions are taken. Accurate self-awareness of one’s weight status is essential for promoting healthy behavior and effective intervention. However, few studies have examined obesity self-awareness and its social and spatial determinants. This thesis
aims to better understand obesity self-awareness in Corpus Christi by identifying social, behavioral, and neighborhood environment factors associated with mismatches between perceived and actual weight categories. To achieve this goal, this thesis has three
specific objectives: 1) to characterize the spatial distribution of food store categories – including groceries/supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, and convenience stores; 2) to examine the relationship among individual’s perceived, self-reported, and measured
weight categories; and 3) to investigate the impact of various factors (e.g., access to healthy/unhealthy food stores, sociodemographic, lifestyle, neighborhood environment) on obesity self-awareness. Two primary datasets were analyzed: 1) a business location
dataset in Corpus Christi from Data Axle, classified by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, and 2) survey data from 405 Corpus Christi adults collected at community health events. The survey included participants’ perceived, self-reported, and
measured weight information, residential zip codes/home addresses, and data on demographics, lifestyle, and neighborhood characteristics. Kernel density analysis revealed that food stores are unevenly distributed across the city, with limited access to grocery
stores, but widespread clustering of fast-food restaurants. Bland-Altman plots showed strong agreement between self-reported and measured weight categories while weighted Cohen’s kappa showed low agreement between perceived and self-reported weight categories.</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin:0in;line-height:24.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Logistic regression results underscored significant relationships between food environment and weight self-awareness. Greater access to healthy
food stores was associated with improved accuracy in weight self-perception, while greater access to unhealthy food stores was associated with reduced accuracy. Hispanics compared to Non-Hispanics had decreased accuracy and those with college level educational
attainment had increased accuracy compared to those with a high school diploma or less. Additionally, respondents who agreed they eat healthy had decreased accuracy in weight self-perception compared to those who disagreed. This study underscores the importance
of obesity self-awareness and its underlying social and spatial determinants. The findings can inform targeted obesity prevention and intervention efforts to promote healthier food environments and improve obesity self-awareness in Corpus Christi and beyond,
as the city’s obesity prevalence closely mirrors national trends. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> <br>
<span style="background:white">Join Zoom Meeting</span><br>
</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0086F0"><a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftamucc.zoom.us%2Fj%2F99991245733%3Fpwd%3D3LzaStLyHLArSlt6t8Nd0722hW2jWp.1&data=05%7C02%7Ccosc-grad-students-list%40listserv.tamucc.edu%7C2f82330d02354704d20908de2156b4fb%7C34cbfaf167a64781a9ca514eb2550b66%7C0%7C0%7C638984853446699093%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=za%2BigAWUpj9w8yqakEpHq9y6OpJGVDioFEhKeB2hJHk%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://tamucc.zoom.us/j/99991245733?pwd=3LzaStLyHLArSlt6t8Nd0722hW2jWp.1"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0086F0">https://tamucc.zoom.us/j/99991245733?pwd=3LzaStLyHLArSlt6t8Nd0722hW2jWp.1</span></a></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><br>
<br>
<span style="background:white">Meeting ID: 999 9124 5733</span><br>
<span style="background:white">Passcode: 170136</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background:white">---</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background:white">Join by SIP</span><br>
<span style="background:white">• <a href="mailto:99991245733@zoomcrc.com">99991245733@zoomcrc.com</a></span><br>
<span style="background:white">Passcode: 170136</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background:white">Join instructions</span><br>
</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0086F0"><a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftamucc.zoom.us%2Fmeetings%2F99991245733%2Finvitations%3Fsignature%3D46Q9ZmNI9byE53ZdZVhVfIV3XKgr2aGoeqpTHgUYi3c&data=05%7C02%7Ccosc-grad-students-list%40listserv.tamucc.edu%7C2f82330d02354704d20908de2156b4fb%7C34cbfaf167a64781a9ca514eb2550b66%7C0%7C0%7C638984853446720076%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=V5dC6P5%2FUnA2rDHy9Vn6Xsh12V2nGS2SJr6FE%2FO2QqQ%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://tamucc.zoom.us/meetings/99991245733/invitations?signature=46Q9ZmNI9byE53ZdZVhVfIV3XKgr2aGoeqpTHgUYi3c"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0086F0">https://tamucc.zoom.us/meetings/99991245733/invitations?signature=46Q9ZmNI9byE53ZdZVhVfIV3XKgr2aGoeqpTHgUYi3c</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>