Our comments in response to the Letter to the Editor, titled “Significant variables in the etiology of liver cirrhosis”, from Ávalos et al., follow below.
As those authors noted, there was indeed an error regarding sample size. The correct figure, 182, appears in the abstract, results section, and table 1, but in the materials and methods section, it is erroneously stated as 1791.
With respect to their observations on the values described in table 4, the associations of the different etiologic factors, in relation to educational levels, are shown, and the two variables were treated as nominal variables. Thus, the relations between the two variables were analyzed using the Pearson’s chi-square test, obtaining a p value of 0.089. That value is higher than 0.05, and so was not considered statistically significant (p > 0.05).
Likewise, Ávalos et al. state that income should have been classified in ranges, given that Delfrade et al.2 have shown that incidence and mortality rates of alcoholic cirrhosis are higher, the lower the income level. Indeed, we did not include levels of income in our analysis, something that we shall keep in mind for future studies.
Those authors also observed that a cause of confusion was the fact that the highest percentages in the study population were for male sex (57.1%) and singleness (67.6%) and the predominant occupation was that of housewife, followed by retiree. As clarification, the variables expressed in table 1 are absolute and relative values related to the total of the sample studied.
In addition, the authors asked what the difference between housewife (35.2%) and unemployed (2.2%) is, if the study population is predominantly male and single, to which we offer the following response. A housewife is a person that does not receive a weekly or monthly salary for the work performed, and in Mexico, new legal provisions are being worked on so that persons with that occupation receive some amount of economic remuneration and are protected under a legal framework, whereas an unemployed person is someone that, by age, is economically active, but does not have a paying job or has temporarily lost one.
We completely agree that in Mexico, as in Paraguay, Colombia, and Peru3–5, socioeconomic and cultural factors have an important influence on the etiology of cirrhosis.
We offer Ávalos et al. our sincere thanks and appreciate their comments on our study.
Ethical considerationsNeither informed consent nor approval by the Bioethics Committee of the Universidad Veracruzana was required for the drafting of the present document, and according to the Declaration of Helsinki and Resolution 008430 of October 4, 1993, the study discussed was considered no risk research.
Financial disclosureNo financial support was received from any of the participating institutions for the drafting of the present article.
Conflict of interestThe authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Please cite this article as: Roesch-Dietlen F, González-Santes M. En relación a la carta al editor de Ávalos-Quispe et al. «Variables significantes en la etiología de la cirrosis hepática». Rev Gastroenterol Méx. 2022;87:130–131.