Reviewer's report
Title:Early Life Environment and Natural History of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Version:3Date:23 October 2014
Reviewer: Whitney Tang
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions
1. Method: There is no sample size justification. Will the non-significant
association between exposures and surgery in UC due to under power of small
sample size?
2. Results: There is a category of “unsure” in the questionnaire. Are they
excluded from the analysis? What is the sample size included in the multivariate
regression models and mutually adjusted model?
3. Results: Although studies showed conflicting result, exposure to antibiotics is
also a factor of interest as an important environmental factors associated with
IBD pathogenesis. There is question about antibiotics included in the
questionnaire. Was the association between exposure to antibiotics and disease
outcome analyzed?
4. Table 1: Characteristics of study population can be separated into UC and CD
since they were analyzed separately, and only factors associated with CD
showed significant result.
5. Typo in line 166: 95% CI
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Early Life Environment and Natural History of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Version:3Date:23 October 2014
Reviewer: Whitney Tang
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions
1. Method: There is no sample size justification. Will the non-significant
association between exposures and surgery in UC due to under power of small
sample size?
2. Results: There is a category of “unsure” in the questionnaire. Are they
excluded from the analysis? What is the sample size included in the multivariate
regression models and mutually adjusted model?
3. Results: Although studies showed conflicting result, exposure to antibiotics is
also a factor of interest as an important environmental factors associated with
IBD pathogenesis. There is question about antibiotics included in the
questionnaire. Was the association between exposure to antibiotics and disease
outcome analyzed?
4. Table 1: Characteristics of study population can be separated into UC and CD
since they were analyzed separately, and only factors associated with CD
showed significant result.
5. Typo in line 166: 95% CI
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Early Life Environment and Natural History of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Version:3Date:23 October 2014
Reviewer: Whitney Tang
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions
1. Method: There is no sample size justification. Will the non-significant
association between exposures and surgery in UC due to under power of small
sample size?
2. Results: There is a category of “unsure” in the questionnaire. Are they
excluded from the analysis? What is the sample size included in the multivariate
regression models and mutually adjusted model?
3. Results: Although studies showed conflicting result, exposure to antibiotics is
also a factor of interest as an important environmental factors associated with
IBD pathogenesis. There is question about antibiotics included in the
questionnaire. Was the association between exposure to antibiotics and disease
outcome analyzed?
4. Table 1: Characteristics of study population can be separated into UC and CD
since they were analyzed separately, and only factors associated with CD
showed significant result.
5. Typo in line 166: 95% CI
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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