1 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Torbalı State Hospital, 35860, İzmir, Turkey
2 Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Ministry of Health Çiğli Education and Research Hospital, 35620, İzmir, Turkey
I read the study on the effects of raising awareness regarding obesity-related risks on pregnancy outcomes with great interest [1]. However, I would like to express a few concerns about the methodology and statistical analyses presented in the article.
Although the study employed a brochure-based educational method, the inclusion of pregnant women who were unable to read or write in both groups poses a significant barrier to achieving the study’s objective and obtaining unbiased results. Similar studies have excluded participants without literacy skills [2, 3, 4].
Another important point pertains to the difference in pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI) between the two groups. Due to the relationship between BMI and eating habits, this heterogeneous distribution could directly bias the study’s findings [5, 6, 7].
Of particular concern are the statistical errors in the analysis. Despite
multiple variables being compared (e.g., more than 20 p-values), no
correction (such as Bonferroni or Benjamini-Hochberg) was performed, thereby
increasing the risk of false positives (Type I error). The results reported as
statistically significant (e.g., p = 0.004, p = 0.006) should
be interpreted in this context. Moreover, the chi-square test was incorrectly
employed for categories with low sample sizes. When the expected frequency in any
cell is less than five, Fisher’s exact test should be used. For example, in the
assessment of educational level, the expected frequency in the “University”
category is 2.5 (i.e.,
MFB: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing–Original Draft, Visualization. İK: Supervision, Methodology, Validation, Writing–Review & Editing, Project Administration.
Not applicable.
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This research received no external funding.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
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