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Article analysis:

The article “Urinary Metabolites of Multiple Volatile Organic Compounds Among Pregnant Women Across Pregnancy: Variability, Exposure Characteristics, and Associations with Selected Oxidative Stress Biomarkers” is a well-written and comprehensive study that provides valuable insights into the variability of urinary VOC metabolites during pregnancy and their relationships with oxidative stress biomarkers in pregnant women. The authors have conducted a thorough analysis of the data collected from 1094 pregnant women at three trimesters and have identified 19 ubiquitous VOC metabolites in the urine samples with detection rates ranging from 75.9% to 100%. They have also identified exposure determinants such as education level, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), unemployment during pregnancy, multiparity, and sampling season that are associated with higher concentrations of some VOC metabolites. Furthermore, they have used weighted quantile sum regression models to assess the mixture effect of the VOC metabolites on oxidative stress biomarkers which were found to be significantly associated with 8-OHdG, 8-OHG, and HNEMA.

The article is reliable in terms of its methodology as it has used appropriate statistical methods for data analysis such as intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for assessing variability among different trimesters; repeated cross-sectional analyses for examining associations between urinary concentrations of VOC metabolites and oxidative stress biomarkers; and weighted quantile sum regression (WQS) models for assessing mixture effects on oxidative stress biomarkers. The authors have also provided detailed information about their research methods including sample collection procedures, laboratory analysis techniques used for measuring urinary concentrations of VOCs and oxidative stress biomarkers etc., which adds credibility to their findings.

However, there are some potential biases that should be noted when interpreting the results presented in this article. Firstly, since this is an observational study based on self-reported data from participants regarding their lifestyle habits such as smoking status or dietary intake etc., there may be recall bias or misclassification errors due to inaccurate reporting by participants which could affect the accuracy of results obtained from this study. Secondly, since this study was conducted in Wuhan city only which has multiple industries releasing pollutants into air including petrochemical industry etc., it may not be applicable to other cities or countries where different sources may contribute differently towards exposure levels of VOCs among pregnant women. Lastly, although the authors have discussed possible health risks associated with exposure to VOCs during pregnancy such as compromised respiratory function etc., they have not discussed any preventive measures that can be taken by pregnant women or healthcare providers to reduce exposure levels or mitigate health risks posed by these pollutants which could provide useful information for readers who are interested in learning more about how they can protect themselves against adverse health effects caused by exposure to these pollutants during pregnancy.