Title: Association between fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and gallstones: An analysis of the NHANES
2017-2020 cross-sectional study
Version: 2 Date: 07 Mar 2025
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for thoroughly addressing the comments. The revised analysis, which excludes age
as a covariate, now presents a much more coherent result.
However, I find the sensitivity analysis with propensity score matching unclear. In the
manuscript, you mention performing 1:1 matching based on the missingness of recorded
gallstones, but Table S1 suggest that stone formers were matched to non-stone formers.
Additionally, the purpose of propensity score matching is undermined, as several covariates
have P values below 0.05. I recommend removing this analysis.
At the very least, to assess potential selection bias, the authors should consider either:
1) Comparing covariates between the study population and the entire NHANES dataset, or
2) Comparing covariates between the study population and individuals eligible for inclusion but
excluded due to missing data.
Title: Association between fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and gallstones: An analysis of the NHANES
2017-2020 cross-sectional study
Version: 2 Date: 07 Mar 2025
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for thoroughly addressing the comments. The revised analysis, which excludes age
as a covariate, now presents a much more coherent result.
However, I find the sensitivity analysis with propensity score matching unclear. In the
manuscript, you mention performing 1:1 matching based on the missingness of recorded
gallstones, but Table S1 suggest that stone formers were matched to non-stone formers.
Additionally, the purpose of propensity score matching is undermined, as several covariates
have P values below 0.05. I recommend removing this analysis.
At the very least, to assess potential selection bias, the authors should consider either:
1) Comparing covariates between the study population and the entire NHANES dataset, or
2) Comparing covariates between the study population and individuals eligible for inclusion but
excluded due to missing data.
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Association between fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and gallstones: An analysis of the NHANES
2017-2020 cross-sectional study
Version: 2 Date: 07 Mar 2025
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for thoroughly addressing the comments. The revised analysis, which excludes age
as a covariate, now presents a much more coherent result.
However, I find the sensitivity analysis with propensity score matching unclear. In the
manuscript, you mention performing 1:1 matching based on the missingness of recorded
gallstones, but Table S1 suggest that stone formers were matched to non-stone formers.
Additionally, the purpose of propensity score matching is undermined, as several covariates
have P values below 0.05. I recommend removing this analysis.
At the very least, to assess potential selection bias, the authors should consider either:
1) Comparing covariates between the study population and the entire NHANES dataset, or
2) Comparing covariates between the study population and individuals eligible for inclusion but
excluded due to missing data.
assistant