School of Public Health

Education

• Ph.D. at Indiana University, 2005
• M.S. at Indiana University, 2001
• M.S. at Kelaniya University, 1996
• B.S. at University of Jaffna, 1985

Background

Community and international nutrition; nutrition and health problems among college students and adults

Publications

Thiagarajah, K., &. Torabi M. R. (2009). "Breakfast and associated behaviors among service maintenance staff in a university setting: an exploratory study" Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 41 (suppl.1):P79, p.s47.

Thiagarajah, K & Torabi, M.R. (2009). "Selected factors associated with health behaviors among a sample of college students" The Health Educator, 41, 4-10.

Thiagarajah, K., &. Torabi M. R. (2008). "Eating Breakfast and Associated Factors among a Sample of College Students" Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 41 (suppl.1):P34, p.s55.

Thiagarajah, K., Fly A. D., Hoelscher, D. M., Yeon Bai, Kaman Lo, Angela Leone, & Julie A. Shertzer, J. A. (2008). Validating the food behavior questions from the elementary school SPAN questionnaire. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 40, 305-310.

Julie A. Shertzer, Thiagarajah, K., Elizabeth Foland, Alyce D. Fly. "Fruit and vegetable consumption and related behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge of adolescents participating in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable" 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of the American Public Health Association (abstract #131237).

Thiagarajah, K., Yeon Bai, Kaman Lo, Angela Leone, Julie A. Shertzer, Deanna M. Hoelscher, &. Fly A. D. "Assessing Validity of Food Behavior Questions from the School Physical Activity and Nutrition Questionnaire" Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 38 (suppl.1):P102, p.s55.

Julie A. Shertzer, Thiagarajah, K., Ginmann Bai, Elizabeth Foland, & Alyce D. Fly, "Estimated Fruit and Vegetable Consumption of Indiana Youth Is Augmented By Fruit Juice and Varies By Ethnicity" Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 38 (suppl.1):P87, p.s50.

Fleming-Moran, M., & Thiagarajah, K. (2005). Behavioral interventions and the role of television in the growing epidemic of adolescent obesity: Data from the 2001 Youth Risk Behavioral Survey. Methods of Information in Medicine, 44, 303-309.

Thiagarajah, K., Foland, E. B., Fisher, P., & Fly, A. D. Two-year surveillance of the USDA fruit and vegetable pilot in Indiana. Poster presented at School Nutrition Association Annual meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 18, 2005.

Thiagarajah, K., Shertzer, J. A., Kaman, L., Bai, Y., Leone, A., & Fly, A. D. Body mass index is inversely related to meal frequency and breakfast consumption in middle school students. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 37(suppl.1), 55, s67.

Shertzer, J. A., Siegel, A. K., Tanner, D. A., Thiagarajah, K., & Fly, A. D. (2005). Vended milk products contribute to middle school students' calcium intake. The FASEB Journal, 19(4), A434 275.5.

Thiagarajah, K., Foland, E. B., Morris, H., Rose, J., & Fly, A. D. (2004). Evaluation of the impact of the USDA fruit and vegetable pilot program on fruit and vegetable intake and food knowledge of Indiana school children. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 36 (suppl.1), 43,.s60.

Fleming-Moran, M., & Thiagarajah, K. Multiple behavior intervention areas for addressing epidemic adolescent obesity: data from the 2001 Youth Risk Behavioral Survey. The International Conference on Health Promotion, Atlanta, GA, October 26, 2003.

Courses Recently Taught

HPER N432 Advanced Nutrition II

HPER N220 Nutrition for Health

HPER N231 Human Nutrition