Reviewer's report
Title:Correlation of body mass index levels with menarche in adolescent girls in
Shaanxi, China: a cross sectional study
Version:3Date:16 February 2016
Reviewer: Lynn Cialdella Kam
Reviewer's report:
Major
• Abstract Line 3: Menarche associated with BMI – The research I have seen
does not support that statement. Is this a conclusion from your study or did you
have a source? Please check this. In general, I think this statement could be
better written. What are the future health issues? Can you be more specific here?
• Abstract: Background: In general, there is a lot of focus on BMI – but then the
study examine growth status and menarche…so I’m not sure why BMI is
mentioned?
• Abstract: Line 14: Delete “In the study here”. Can you build up this section
more? Add p-values and numbers.
• Abstract: Line 19: I disagree with your conclusion. BMI may be an indicator of
menarche for the population studies…however, other researchers have not found
this. Please rethink this conclusion.
• Background: Line 12: Again there is controversy about the association with BMI
and menarche (which you seem to address in the next sentence) – so change to
has been reported instead of “is known”
• Methods: Line 22: Do you mean Probit Regression Analysis – or Binomial
Regression? If so, I don’t understand how you calculate age at menarche utilizing
this method. Please explain.
• Discussion: This needs more development. You should compare your results to
other studies that have examined this aspect – it is pretty light for a discussion.
Please expand.
Minor
• Abstract Line 4: Please rewrite – I don’t quite understand it – From an English
language point of view, it is confusing.
• Background: Line 2: Please be consistent in formatting (tabbing in).
• Background: Line 4 – this is a long list – break this up?
• Background: Line 9: “heavier” is not the best choice of word – increase in body
mass.
• Background: Line 15: Since this is a scientific paper – normally “taller” and
“heavier” are not used –but we talk about height and body mass. Please change
throughout.
• Background: Line 16: The sentence in Line 16 does not make sense – how
does the onset of puberty lead them to be overweight? Also, a high BMI can
occur in athletes (who have low body fat) – I’m not sure how relevant this is to
the population examined. I think this line and the next needs clarification.
• Background: Line 22: “some researches” – please change, English issue. What
do you mean by “secular trend”
• Methods: Line 16: What does subordinate administrative areas mean? In
general, I think you can clarify this for the methodology. What were the
geographical characteristics? Local domestic product cutoff? And explain
administrative areas. (maybe administrative is not the right word? ) It is a bit
confusing where you drew your sample from (this goes beyond this line) - can
you clarify this?
• Methods: Page 6, Line 10: This should be in the results section and not here.
• Methods: Line 16: please fix “undo hairstyles” and the rest of this sentence
• Methods: Line 22: What is the Frankfort Plane?
•
Discretionary
• Abstract: Line 10: It would be better to say “participants” since they had to
agree to take part of the study.
• Methods: Line 10: It is not appropriate to say “I” for this format. In general, this
should be clarified. Assent is for under age 16, consent for over age 16 – and
parents give consent.
• Methods (next page): Line 7: It is normal to express data as mean and SD or
SE. Please fix table 1 – that is still quite difficult to read
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
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.