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RANDELL C. ALEXANDER, MD
Child Development Clinic Department of Pediatrics University of Iowa School of Medicine Iowa City, IA 52242

Am J Dis Child. 1985;139(1):12.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Sir.—Weisman et al¹ erroneously concluded that suppositories given to healthy term newborns to speed the evacuation of meconium were without effect. This conclusion has been cited elsewhere.² The data seem to show a reliable statistical difference between a control group and a group treated with suppositories when six measures of serum bilirubin were taken between 12 and 72 hours of age. The practical effect was to only lower serum bilirubin levels by 1 mg/dL on the average in the treated group.

The authors performed multiple t test comparisons between the groups at different ages and then inappropriately extended this to a global conclusion regarding the effect of the treatment. To assess the treatment effect all ages should simultaneously be incorporated in the chosen analysis. A global, nonparametric (even somewhat insensitive) test such as the Wilcoxon signed rank test shows the effect of the treatment to be significant (P . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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