tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post8313046601454719711..comments2012-03-25T22:25:53.596-07:00Comments on CATCH-IT Blog: Health Informatics Journal Club: CATCH-IT Draft: Web-based Weigt Loss in Primary Care: A RCTGunther Eysenbach MD MPHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03418681005679727986noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post-78196847859067852852009-12-07T20:41:22.201-08:002009-12-07T20:41:22.201-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Claudiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17838814260478407987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post-63902655540535626892009-11-29T17:29:10.766-08:002009-11-29T17:29:10.766-08:00Hi Claudia,
You may also want to add the folllow...Hi Claudia, <br /><br />You may also want to add the folllowing comment: <br /><br />Authors used 6 weeks and 10 weeks as cut off points for categorization of participants study periods. These two cut points are kind of arbitrary and it not clear whether small changes in these cut points would maintain the significance findings or not. A better approach would be correlating the amount and percentages of weight loss with percentages of study period using simple correlation statistics. A positive and significant correlation would support their findings in a way that a higher study participation would result in a higher weight loss. Thank you.Marjan Moeinedinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07709732766372054509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post-35858329308374804602009-11-29T17:27:47.258-08:002009-11-29T17:27:47.258-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Marjan Moeinedinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07709732766372054509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post-66522773973609463992009-11-26T10:48:01.447-08:002009-11-26T10:48:01.447-08:00My apologies, the primary and secondary outcomes a...My apologies, the primary and secondary outcomes are specifically reported related to finding differences and not finding differences, along with appropriate confidence intervals. Please disregard my earlier post.Laurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10487393394828253854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post-51913311393645258002009-11-25T20:08:25.888-08:002009-11-25T20:08:25.888-08:00Again: Can you (and everybody else) please add the...Again: Can you (and everybody else) please add the complete bibliographic citation of the study under discussion at the top of the report.<br /><br />You have too many typos and some awkward sentences in your report, e.g. "It is unclear how the body weight of all participants (n=101) was reported as (97.3 kg +/- 10.9), the same weight as usual care participants, but includes the intervention group had a higher mean weight.". You are onto something here - namely that some of the numbers reported in the table clearly make no sense, which for me is always alarming. Unfortunately, you bury this observation at the end of your report in a grammatically botched sentence.<br /><br />I am not sure if I would agree with the statement on this being an "exploratory" study. RCTs are rarely exploratory.<br /><br />Laure: I would interpret the result that the "mean difference [is] -2.56 kg (95% CI -3.60, -1.53)" as an indication that there is a statistically significant difference (otherwise the upper end of the CI would be >0).Gunther Eysenbach MD MPHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03418681005679727986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916610575947257275.post-57720997111609017982009-11-24T13:22:45.811-08:002009-11-24T13:22:45.811-08:00One point for consideration, there are no statisti...One point for consideration, there are no statistically significant values reported (related to outcomes) which might suggest the null hypothesis is supported, and that the intervention is no different than usual care. The manner in which the authors report outcomes, e.g. "greater weight loss was observed", along with statements that weight loss interventions can be successfully offered in primary care settings (based on these results) are difficult to support if you fail to reject the null hypothesis. At the very least, it may be helpful to have the authors offer more information about the outcomes measures in relation to this.Laurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10487393394828253854noreply@blogger.com