To avoid reverse causality, the main analysis excluded these individuals and was based on 1,695 participants.
To estimate the association between bulky DNA adduct levels and term birth weight, we repeated the main analysis after excluding preterm deliveries (n = 26).
Rerunning the main analysis (that excluding erpetosuchids) yielded 90 most parsimonious trees of 1311 steps, with the strict consensus tree showing the same topology and similar support metrics as the original analysis (Additional file 6).
Because physical activity may differentially impact the incidence vs mortality of kidney cancer, we repeated the main analysis after excluding the two risk estimates from the papers on kidney cancer mortality (Washio et al, 2005; Thompson et al, 2008).
Intensity of pesticide exposure was associated with PD, with estimates similar to those from the main analysis, when excluding applications occurring 2, 10, or 20 years before the reference date (p-trend < 0.05; see Supplemental Material, Table S2).
So, for the main analysis, having excluded patients with one prescription, we will run a sensitivity analysis including all patients with one or more prescriptions.
In a post hoc decision, we included these studies in the main analysis but excluded them in a sensitivity analysis to test the impact of their data on the final results.
This approach did not affect the main analysis, but excluded the following potential predictors from the subanalyses: diabetes, major depression, liver/kidney disease, and medication with antacids, NSAIDs, or hormone therapy.
Women who reported prior vascular disease at recruitment (ever had or now being treated for heart disease, stroke and blood clots or clotting problems) were included in the main analysis, but excluded from a sensitivity analysis to assess reverse causation by pre-existing illness.
Additionally, we did a per protocol analysis excluding participants with any missing values for the main outcome.
