Suzette Morelock’s research while affiliated with University of California, Berkeley and other places

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Publications (20)


The Relationship between Sleep and Sudden Infant Death
  • Article

February 1988

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8 Reads

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23 Citations

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Jeffrey B. Gould

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Suzette Morelock

Infants epidemiologically at high risk for SIDS demonstrate a variety of abnormalities in sleep-state organization, maturation, and sleep-state modulation of cardio-respiratory control mechanisms. These involve both the REM and quiet-sleep states and are seen in twins who have had no evidence of clinical cardio-respiratory compromise during infancy as well as in near-miss infants who have suffered serious cardio-respiratory failure. Although these infants have higher levels of REM sleep around 40 weeks, of special concern is the decrease in the maturation of the quiet system, which becomes evident after 44 weeks, and the reported quiet-sleep abnormalities in reflex control of respiration and arousal. The source of these abnormalities is environmental rather than genetic and most likely occurs prenatally. During the critical period for SIDS, infant sleep begins to coalesce from a series of naps to more prolonged night time sleep periods that last up to 8 hours. We believe that the ability to maintain physiologic homeostasis during prolonged sleep is a challenge facing infants who are epidemiologically at risk for sudden infant death. The challenge facing sleep research is the more complete understanding of the relationship between prolonged inhibition, homeostasis, arousal, and development.


Effects of Maine's 1981 and Massachusetts' 1982 Driving-Under-the-Influence Legislation
  • Article
  • Full-text available

June 1987

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129 Reads

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47 Citations

American Journal of Public Health

Ralph W. Hingson

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Tim Heeren

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David Kovenock

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[...]

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N.A. Scotch

In 1981, Maine passed a drunk driving law with mandatory penalties and a new civil charge to increase the conviction rate. One year later, Massachusetts increased drunk driving penalties, particularly for repeat offenders and intoxicated drivers involved in fatal crashes. In Maine, single-vehicle nighttime fatal crashes declined 22 per cent the year before passage of the law, and 33 per cent the year after. Maine's rates returned to pre-law levels by the third post-law year. Prior to Massachusetts' new law, single-vehicle nighttime and overall fatal crashes there also declined 20% and 22%, whereas after this law fatal crash rates did not decline further compared with the pre-law year or other New England states. Pre- and post-law surveys indicate that both laws were followed by some increases in public perceptions that drunk drivers stopped by police would be arrested, convicted, and receive automatic penalties. But, few believed it was very likely that drunk drivers would be stopped. For only two of three years studied after Maine's law did more people there report decisions not to drive because they had drunk too much. In Massachusetts, reported driving after heavy drinking declined as much the year before as the three years after its law.

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Maternal marijuana use and neonatal outcome: Uncertainty posed by self-reports

July 1986

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50 Reads

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76 Citations

American Journal of Public Health

To assess the validity of self-reported marijuana use during pregnancy, this study randomly allocated pregnant women into a group who were told their urine would be tested for marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs and another group not so tested. Women told they would be tested reported more marijuana use during pregnancy than did untested women. Moreover, urine assays identified more women who used marijuana during pregnancy than were willing to admit it in the interview even after being told their urine would be tested. No differences in reported drinking or cigarette smoking during pregnancy were found between tested and untested women.


Impact of Maternal Work Outside the Home during Pregnancy on Neonatal Outcome

May 1986

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12 Reads

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61 Citations

Pediatrics

The impact of mothers' work during pregnancy upon neonatal outcome has not been fully elucidated. A study of maternal health habits and neonatal outcome conducted from 1977 to 1979 at Boston City Hospital assessed the effects of paid work outside the home during pregnancy, particularly third trimester work in a standing position, upon duration of gestation and intrauterine growth, while controlling for potentially confounding variables. Postpartum, 1,690 low-income women were interviewed to provide detailed information on their sociodemographic and health characteristics. Of the 1,507 women whose work status during pregnancy could be classified, 55% did not perform paid work outside the home or attend school, 7% worked into the third trimester in a standing position, and 38% had other work histories or attended school. Infants were examined according to a standard protocol by pediatricians blind to mothers' work history. There was no significant relationship between the mothers' work history during pregnancy and the infants' length of gestation, weight, or head circumference at birth, when confounding variables were controlled statistically by multiple regression analyses. However, women who worked in a standing position into the third trimester delivered infants who were longer than infants born either to mothers with other work histories or to mothers who did not work or attend school. Healthy women with uncomplicated low-risk pregnancies who feel well enough to attend school or work during pregnancy, even in a job requiring some standing, may do so without fear that their infant will suffer shortened gestation or impaired intrauterine growth.


Impact of Maternal Work Outside the Home During Pregnancy on Neonatal Outcome

April 1986

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3 Reads

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33 Citations

Pediatrics

The impact of mothers' work during pregnancy upon neonatal outcome has not been fully elucidated. A study of maternal health habits and neonatal outcome conducted from 1977 to 1979 at Boston City Hospital assessed the effects of paid work outside the home during pregnancy, particularly third trimester work in a standing position, upon duration of gestation and intrauterine growth, while controlling for potentially confounding variables. Postpartum, 1,690 low-income women were interviewed to provide detailed information on their sociodemographic and health characteristics. Of the 1,507 women whose work status during pregnancy could be classified, 55% did not perform paid work outside the home or attend school, 7% worked into the third trimester in a standing position, and 38% had other work histories or attended school. Infants were examined according to a standard protocol by pediatricians blind to mothers' work history. There was no significant relationship between the mothers' work history during pregnancy and the infants' length of gestation, weight, or head circumference at birth, when confounding variables were controlled statistically by multiple regression analyses. However, women who worked in a standing position into the third trimester delivered infants who were longer than infants born either to mothers with other work histories or to mothers who did not work or attend school. Healthy women with uncomplicated low-risk pregnancies who feel well enough to attend school or work during pregnancy, even in a job requiring some standing, may do so without fear that their infant will suffer shortened gestation or impaired intrauterine growth.


WITHDRAWN: Reprint of “Surrogate Measures of Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes: Are Conventional Indicators Adequate?”

September 1985

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21 Reads

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37 Citations

Journal of Safety Research

The problem of alcohol-related highway fatalities has led a majority of states to enact new legislative countermeasures. Because few states consistently collect information on alcohol involvement in fatal crashes, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these countermeasures has relied on surrogate measures of alcohol involvement. Using data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS), this study addresses the following questions: (a) Which of the several surrogate measures used are most likely to reflect alcohol involvement in fatal crashes? and (b) Do the trends in these surrogate measures provide an accurate appraisal of the true trends in alcohol-involved fatal crashes? The authors conclude that nighttime fatal crashes are the best surrogate measure of alcohol-involved crashes, but that surrogate measures may not accurately mirror trends in alcohol-involved fatal crashes over time, particularly in small states or over short durations. All drivers in fatal crashes should be given blood alcohol level (BAL) tests to most accurately assess the effects of drunk driving countermeasures.


Table 4 . Logistic regression analysis: independent variables significantly predicting opposition to a mandatory seat belt use law 
Mandatory seatbelt law support and opposition in New England - A survey

July 1985

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133 Reads

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14 Citations

Public Health Reports

Less than one-fifth of the U.S. population consistently wears automobile seatbelts. Automatic seatbelts or air bags will be required in all new cars, unless States whose total population equals two-thirds of the nation's adopt mandatory seatbelt use laws by 1989, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In July 1984, New York State passed the first mandatory seatbelt law in the nation, followed by New Jersey, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and New Mexico. A telephone survey of 2,982 randomly selected drivers examined belt use and support for mandatory belt use laws in the six New England States. Drivers with little education and low income, younger drivers, and drivers who drove after heavy drinking or marijuana use, or both, were least likely to wear seatbelts. Beliefs that seatbelts are not effective in reducing injury risk and are uncomfortable were more common among those not wearing belts. Sixty percent of drivers favored a mandatory seatbelt use law. The most important predictors of opposition to a belt use law were beliefs that seatbelts are ineffective, inconvenient, and uncomfortable. Opposition was also more likely among persons who reported that they drove after marijuana use, or heavy drinking, or both, drove more miles per year, exhibited a low frequency of seatbelt use, and perceived a low probability of personal crash involvement.



Sudden death in the Framingham Heart Study. Differences in incidence and risk factors by sex and coronary disease status

January 1985

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33 Reads

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173 Citations

American Journal of Epidemiology

The frequency of and risk factors for sudden death in men and women with and without prior coronary heart disease were investigated in the population-based Framingham Heart Study. The cohort initially consisted of 2,336 men and 2,873 women. Over 26 years, 146 men died suddenly (46% of all male coronary heart disease deaths). A total of 69 men without and 77 men with prior evidence of coronary heart disease were victims of sudden death. Out of 50 sudden deaths in women (34% of female coronary heart disease deaths), 34 occurred in women without prior coronary disease and 16 in women with prior coronary disease. Incidence rates for sudden death were substantially greater in men than in women and in both men and women with, as opposed to without, prior coronary heart disease. The classic coronary heart disease risk factors, left ventricular hypertrophy, age, serum cholesterol, number of cigarettes smoked daily, relative weight, and systolic blood pressure, emerged from multiple logistic regression analysis of sudden death in men without prior coronary heart disease. However, in men with prior coronary disease, only left ventricular hypertrophy and intraventricular block, and no other classic risk factors, were positive predictors of sudden death. For women without prior coronary disease, significant factors were age, vital capacity, hematocrit, serum cholesterol (marginal), and serum glucose (marginal). In women with prior coronary disease, only hematocrit was a consistent predictor. Reasons for the substantial differences in sudden death risk profiles between men and women are not entirely clear, but limitations in data may partially account for these sex differences.


Citations (18)


... During the full text review, 17 additional articles were excluded for the following reasons: study design was a case study (18), a comparable study was conducted by the same authors using the same dataset (19)(20)(21)(22)(23), and the study did not specifically evaluate associations between cannabis exposure in pregnancy and birth defects [e.g., cannabis was included in a general substance use exposure variable or the outcome studied was not a birth defect; (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)]. Therefore, the final review included 20 articles (9,22,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53). See Figure 1 for a PRISMA flow diagram illustrating our identification process of articles for our final review. ...

Reference:

A systematic review of in utero cannabis exposure and risk for structural birth defects
Effects of Maternal Drinking and Marijuana Use on Fetal Growth and Development
  • Citing Article
  • October 1982

Pediatrics

... is; women who are employed may be at increased risk of inadequate meals intake because of lack of time for shopping and/or cooking. Working women who worked standing were less likely to eat three meals per day than those who worked sitting [6] . ...

Impact of Maternal Work Outside the Home during Pregnancy on Neonatal Outcome
  • Citing Article
  • January 1987

Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey

... A number of studies have investigated the effects of marijuana on driving performance or traffic safety. Several reports indicated a significantly increased risk associated with driving under the influence of marijuana ( Hingson et al., 1982;Bergeron and Paquette, 2014). Other studies showed that the risk is only moderate (Robbe, 1994;Robbe, 1998;Smiley, 1998;Ramaekers et al., 2000); the studies do indicate, however, that drivers under the influence of marijuana are impaired. ...

Teenage driving after marijuana or drinking and traffic accident involvement
  • Citing Article
  • March 1982

Journal of Safety Research

... These average times combined resulted in most study participants getting to the ED at the above-mentioned time, between 20:00 and 04:00. This finding reaffirms the reasoning behind why a night-time car crash is often used as a proxy indicator for an alcohol-related accident [26]. ...

WITHDRAWN: Reprint of “Surrogate Measures of Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes: Are Conventional Indicators Adequate?”
  • Citing Article
  • September 1985

Journal of Safety Research

... 3 Penelitian Framingham yang menggunakan penelitian kohort prospektif besar mengamati selama periode 26 tahun dan melaporkan bahwa 13% dari semua kematian mendadak terjadi secara alamiah seperti yang didefinisikan bahwa kematian mendadak terjadi dalam hitungan menit setelah timbulnya gejala. 4 Kematian mendadak tidak selalu terjadi tidak diduga, dan kematian yang tak diduga tidak selalu terjadi mendadak, namun keduanya sering terjadi bersamaan dalam satu kasus. 3 Seorang dokter perlu memastikan sebab kematian mendadak yang diterangkan dalam surat keterangan kematian, dan untuk mengetahui sebab kematian mendadak perlu dilakukan autopsi. 1 Autopsi yang digunakan ialah autopsi forensik/ medikolegal yang dilakukan terhadap mayat seseorang yang diduga meninggal akibat suatu sebab yang tidak wajar seperti pada kasus kecelakaan dan pembunuhan maupun bunuh diri. ...

The epidemiology of sudden unexpected death: Risk factors for men and women in the Framingham Heart Study
  • Citing Article
  • June 1984

American Heart Journal

... Drug dependence is more common in men than in women, peaks in young adults, and goes down steadily with age (Burke et al., 1990). However, there is evidence that a significant percentage of pregnant women, 3-27% according to various reports (e.g., Zuckerman et al., 1985Zuckerman et al., , 1989Hatch et al., 1986;MacGregor et al., 1990;Lee, 1998), use the drug during pregnancy. THC (the active component of marijuana) crosses the placenta readily in rodents (Idanappan-Heikkila et al., 1969) and primates (Bailey et al., 1987), peaking in fetal blood within 15 min of administration. ...

A pilot study assessing maternal marijuana use by urine assay during pregnancy

NIDA research monograph

... This study suggested an incomplete arousal process from sleep in infants who succumb to SIDS (90). Sensory stimulation of the trigeminal nerve during REM sleep has been shown to cause REM sleep-associated respiratory failures in SIDS infants (89,91). ...

The Relationship between Sleep and Sudden Infant Death
  • Citing Article
  • February 1988

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

... In the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9% of pregnant women admitted to using illicit drugs in the first trimester, 4.8% in the second, and 2.4% through the third (1). Although maternal self-report of drug use is an inexpensive means of estimating likely in utero drug exposure, is easy to collect, and is widely accessible, it also has significant limitations (2)(3)(4)(5). Potential psychological, social, and/or legal consequences may influence answers to such surveys and questionnaires, contributing to falsely low estimates of drug use in pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has recommended that universal screening for substance use be performed at the first prenatal visit using validated screening questionnaires (6). ...

Maternal marijuana use and neonatal outcome: Uncertainty posed by self-reports

American Journal of Public Health

... The effects associated with a change in law on a specific date may also occur over a period of time rather than specifically on that date; examples can be found where the effect of a law change came more from the public discourse around the proposed change than from the actual legal change (e.g. Hingson et al. [18] and Møller [19]). In the analyses which follow, we use the effective dates of laws and timing of events in our analyses, but recognise that they are often markers of a wider change in popular understanding and behaviour associated with the event or legal change. ...

Effects of Maine's 1981 and Massachusetts' 1982 Driving-Under-the-Influence Legislation

American Journal of Public Health

... This distrust often materializes in statements that go against the statistical evidence or the recommendations of the experts, such as that seat belts can be dangerous for drivers because "one can fall into a lake and not have time to unfasten it"; that airbags "do more harm than good in a crash"; that helmets are only capable of protecting "something that has the shape of a head in the laboratory but not in real accidents", so forcing the people to use them is an infringement on their personal liberties [7]; or that speed surveillance cameras are "tax cameras" [8]. For example, Morelock et al. [9] studied the opposition and support for the mandatory seat belt laws in New England and signaled that "despite the many efforts of public officials to alter the public's knowledge about seatbelt effectiveness, it appears from these analysis that many common myths about seatbelts have not been dispelled". Examples of what they regarded as myth about seat belts -given the scientific evidence-were: as follows "It is better to be thrown clear of the car if you are in a serious accident"-14% of the respondents strongly thought this was true-or "A person who is wearing a set belt is less likely to be injured in a serious accident than a person who does not wear one"-31% believed this. ...

Mandatory seatbelt law support and opposition in New England - A survey

Public Health Reports