Title: Association between weight-adjusted-waist index and gallstones: an analysis of the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Version: 1 Date: 19 Nov 2023
Reviewer's report:
Dear Authors,
Thank you so much for the work you have done to analyze and prepare the study.
I have some review feedback for your consideration as outlined below.
The authors wrote as follows
“Those participants with missing WWI data will be excluded (n = 1174)”
Comment
This should be past tense because the study was already completed.
The authors wrote as follows
“The outcome variable was the occurance of gallstone”
Comment
The word “occurance” should be “occurrence”
The following sentence may require some modification for clarity and spelling revision.
“The outcome variable was the occurance of gallstone. To assess gallbladder stones,
questionnaires were used, including: “Has a doctor or other health professional ever told you
that you had gallstone?” “
In the covariates, analysis, and results subsections, the following are the review feedback for
your consideration.
Under the covariates subsection, the authors may consider describing each of the categories
within the text for the categorical variables presented in the tables of results, such as in Table 1.
For example, what are the cut-off thresholds used to determine lower, higher and unclear coffee
consumption? The thresholds used in the categorization of the variables of coffee consumption:
total energy, total sugar, total fat, total water, and total fiber. The description of variable
categories is recommended in the STROBE guidelines, and describing these categories will
enable replication of the study by other authors in future studies.
In Table 3, Tertiles 1, 2, and 3 are presented, but the readers will not know the cuff-off for these
tertiles.
In addition, in Table 4 for the categories of “Stratified by sedentary time (min)”, low, middle, and
high categories are provided, but these are not described in the manuscript or in the table. This
Future article readers may not know whether the above-mentioned variables were originally
collected as continuous data during data collection by NHANES, or whether the data were
originally categorized in the current study.
In addition, in case there is a methodology article published by NHANES or by other authors
that specifically describes the variables, the authors of the current study may consider citing
that paper in the methodology section where the authors of the current study mentioned the
NHANES website.
Regarding marital status variable, are the married and cohabitating classified together as
“cohabitation” during the data collection? If yes, this should be included in the variable
description, and if not, the authors may consider describing the categorization in this study.
For the variables that have categories of “Unclear” in the table of results, were the data originally
classified as “unclear” during data collection or is this a derived classification for this study?
Title: Association between weight-adjusted-waist index and gallstones: an analysis of the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Version: 1 Date: 19 Nov 2023
Reviewer's report:
Dear Authors,
Thank you so much for the work you have done to analyze and prepare the study.
I have some review feedback for your consideration as outlined below.
The authors wrote as follows
“Those participants with missing WWI data will be excluded (n = 1174)”
Comment
This should be past tense because the study was already completed.
The authors wrote as follows
“The outcome variable was the occurance of gallstone”
Comment
The word “occurance” should be “occurrence”
The following sentence may require some modification for clarity and spelling revision.
“The outcome variable was the occurance of gallstone. To assess gallbladder stones,
questionnaires were used, including: “Has a doctor or other health professional ever told you
that you had gallstone?” “
In the covariates, analysis, and results subsections, the following are the review feedback for
your consideration.
Under the covariates subsection, the authors may consider describing each of the categories
within the text for the categorical variables presented in the tables of results, such as in Table 1.
For example, what are the cut-off thresholds used to determine lower, higher and unclear coffee
consumption? The thresholds used in the categorization of the variables of coffee consumption:
total energy, total sugar, total fat, total water, and total fiber. The description of variable
categories is recommended in the STROBE guidelines, and describing these categories will
enable replication of the study by other authors in future studies.
In Table 3, Tertiles 1, 2, and 3 are presented, but the readers will not know the cuff-off for these
tertiles.
In addition, in Table 4 for the categories of “Stratified by sedentary time (min)”, low, middle, and
high categories are provided, but these are not described in the manuscript or in the table. This
Future article readers may not know whether the above-mentioned variables were originally
collected as continuous data during data collection by NHANES, or whether the data were
originally categorized in the current study.
In addition, in case there is a methodology article published by NHANES or by other authors
that specifically describes the variables, the authors of the current study may consider citing
that paper in the methodology section where the authors of the current study mentioned the
NHANES website.
Regarding marital status variable, are the married and cohabitating classified together as
“cohabitation” during the data collection? If yes, this should be included in the variable
description, and if not, the authors may consider describing the categorization in this study.
For the variables that have categories of “Unclear” in the table of results, were the data originally
classified as “unclear” during data collection or is this a derived classification for this study?
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Association between weight-adjusted-waist index and gallstones: an analysis of the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Version: 1 Date: 19 Nov 2023
Reviewer's report:
Dear Authors,
Thank you so much for the work you have done to analyze and prepare the study.
I have some review feedback for your consideration as outlined below.
The authors wrote as follows
“Those participants with missing WWI data will be excluded (n = 1174)”
Comment
This should be past tense because the study was already completed.
The authors wrote as follows
“The outcome variable was the occurance of gallstone”
Comment
The word “occurance” should be “occurrence”
The following sentence may require some modification for clarity and spelling revision.
“The outcome variable was the occurance of gallstone. To assess gallbladder stones,
questionnaires were used, including: “Has a doctor or other health professional ever told you
that you had gallstone?” “
In the covariates, analysis, and results subsections, the following are the review feedback for
your consideration.
Under the covariates subsection, the authors may consider describing each of the categories
within the text for the categorical variables presented in the tables of results, such as in Table 1.
For example, what are the cut-off thresholds used to determine lower, higher and unclear coffee
consumption? The thresholds used in the categorization of the variables of coffee consumption:
total energy, total sugar, total fat, total water, and total fiber. The description of variable
categories is recommended in the STROBE guidelines, and describing these categories will
enable replication of the study by other authors in future studies.
In Table 3, Tertiles 1, 2, and 3 are presented, but the readers will not know the cuff-off for these
tertiles.
In addition, in Table 4 for the categories of “Stratified by sedentary time (min)”, low, middle, and
high categories are provided, but these are not described in the manuscript or in the table. This
Future article readers may not know whether the above-mentioned variables were originally
collected as continuous data during data collection by NHANES, or whether the data were
originally categorized in the current study.
In addition, in case there is a methodology article published by NHANES or by other authors
that specifically describes the variables, the authors of the current study may consider citing
that paper in the methodology section where the authors of the current study mentioned the
NHANES website.
Regarding marital status variable, are the married and cohabitating classified together as
“cohabitation” during the data collection? If yes, this should be included in the variable
description, and if not, the authors may consider describing the categorization in this study.
For the variables that have categories of “Unclear” in the table of results, were the data originally
classified as “unclear” during data collection or is this a derived classification for this study?
assistant