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P1 formula is wrong

Posted by inditrehan on 28 Dec 2009 at 18:23 GMT

I would like to thank the authors of this article for this useful addition to the evidence base on malnutrition in children.

However, the formula provided for P1(death) appears to be incorrect in the original version of the article as it appears in PLoS ONE. I have informed the authors of the article about this error and given them several sample calculations demonstrating the error, but have not heard back from them yet about what the correct version of this formula should be, or whether the corrected formula is still valid to the level of significance suggested by the article.

I would therefore caution other readers about the erroneous formula before attempting to apply the formula to their own data. I look forward to the authors' reply about the correct formula and thank them for the feedback they have given so far in attempting to find the correct formula.

No competing interests declared.

RE: P1 formula is wrong

inditrehan replied to inditrehan on 08 Jan 2010 at 17:30 GMT

The authors of this paper have graciously clarified the formula for P1.

1. Height should be entered in meters, not centimeters.
2. The logarithm to be used is the natural logarithm, not the standard base-10 logarithm.

I thank the authors for this useful paper and their help in understanding their work.

No competing interests declared.