PONE-D-20-33494

Correlation between neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and vitamin D levels: A meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ren,

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Abhishek Makkar, M.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Comments and suggestions for the authors:

This is an interesting meta-analysis on neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and Vitamin D levels.

1) Suggestions on Abstract: The abstract submitted does not have a purpose or background. Suggested to include few lines on neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and why it is important to identify if there is any correlation between the two.

2) For the results stated in the abstract and in the main paper, would recommend to include the SI units for the vitamin d levels. Were the levels of Vitamin D reported in all the papers with the same metric measurements?

3) Suggestions to modify the conclusion for the abstract: Vitamin D levels were observed to be lower in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia as compared to term neonates without hyperbilirubinemia in this study. This can possibly suggest that neonates with lower vitamin D levels are at higher risk for developing hyperbilirubinemia

4) Corrections:

Line 42: A meta-analysis was conducted on the included studies using Stata11.0 43 software.

Line 48: Vitamin D level of infants with hyperbilirubinemia (15 to 20 mg/dl group?) was 9.52 (Z =15.55, 95% CI-10.72~-8.32, P<0.05) lower than that of healthy infants.

Line 50: It is unclear what these results are? vitamin D level of hyperbilirubinemia neonates were 5.35 lower than that of healthy neonates (Z =6.43, 95% CI-6.98~-3.72, 51 P<0.05).

5) Introduction: Introduction can be more precise on neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and vitamin D levels. More on why the correlation needs to be done. The introduction of the manuscript is very elaborate

6) When the number of studies included in the analysis is less than 10, the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method can better reduce the risk of type 1 error than the DerSimonian and Laird method. What method did the authors use for the random effect?

7) Funnel plot is recommended only when more than 10 articles are included in the meta-analysis. Can authors explain why they chose to subgroup and do a funnel plot for only two studies and four studies?

Reviewer #2: The main concern about this article is it does not describe the units properly. For eg, it states: The vitamin D level of infants with hyperbilirubinemia was 9.52 (Z =15.55, 95% CI-10.72~-8.32, P<0.05) lower than that of healthy

infants. What is 9.52? is it 9.52 times, is the vitamin D level 9.52, if so in what units? The way it is written it is very hard to understand. Also of the articles selected for the metanalysis, no description is given of how they measured vitamin D levels. Generally, there is considerable variation in the assays used with mass spec being the most accurate.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: SOWMYA KRISHNAN

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PONE-D-20-33494R1

Correlation between neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and vitamin D levels: A meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ren,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Thanks for addressing reviewer comments. I would advise you to change term judgement in second line of abstract and replace with diagnosis and management. Judgement isn't a medical term and isn't clear what  you are trying to state. Looking forward to your final version.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 07 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Abhishek Makkar, M.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Correlation between neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and vitamin D levels: A meta-analysis

PONE-D-20-33494R2

Dear Dr. Ren,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Abhishek Makkar, M.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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