PONE-D-20-27277

Geographical clustering of under-nutrition and its predictors among under-five children in Ethiopia: Geographically weighted regression Analysis

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Reviewer’s comments

Full title: Geographical clustering of under-nutrition and its predictors among under-five children in Ethiopia: Geographically weighted regression Analysis

Manuscript number: PONE-D-20-27277

Corresponding author: Mequannent Melaku sharew, Mph in health informatics Wollo University Desse, ETHIOPIA

Comments and questions

I appreciate the authors for addressing such highly contextually and culturally affected public health issues. It so concerning that under-nutrition is continued to be a public health problem in Ethiopia. Therefore, evidence regarding the distribution of under-nutrition with its respective determinants is important for decision-making in dealing with its prevention and control program. The paper is well organized and presented. The study presents the findings of original research in the area of public health. And the results have not been published elsewhere. Having adequately performed relevant analyses with sufficient detail; it presents coherent and data-oriented conclusions. The article is presented in an acceptable level English language standard and reporting guideline.

Additional comments and questions

The author would respond to some of the following questions and comments.

1. Title: “Geographical clustering of under-nutrition and its predictors among under-five children in Ethiopia: Geographically weighted regression Analysis”. Since the data for this study comes from the DHS source; it’s good to indicate it in the title. So, the author would restructure the title as…; “Using Geographically weighted regression Analysis to cluster under-nutrition and its predictors among under-five children in Ethiopia: Evidence from demographic and health survey”.

2. Abstract: Line 30: Methods: in the method section of the abstract; the author should indicate that the data comes from DHS. Indicating it is very important as it adds quality to the paper (data from a large population) and attracts the readers at a first impression.

3. Introduction: page: Line 99-10: “Geographical variation of under-nutrition can delay control and elimination of malnutrition which is the underline cause of most childhood disease that in turn brings a high proportion of under-five mortality.” This sentence is not clear or it seems incomplete. It would good for the author to rephrase it?

4. Methods and materials: Study setting: Line 110: the author would briefly discuss information about study settings or Ethiopia. E.g about the nine regional states of Ethiopia and other relevant information to under-nutrition such as urbanization, economic and agricultural practices, etc.

5. Discussion: Line 374 and the Implications of the study: Line 510: It gives more sound meaning if the author could combine discussion points with implications. The author tried to compare the findings of the study with other previous pieces of evidence and discuss discrepancies as well. That’s good. But it would be more informative if the author could also discuss the implications (policy, methodological and practical implications) for each point of discussion and explanations. in so doing, the author would remove the section “Implications of the study in Line 510”.

6. Question: It’s clear that the distribution of under-nutrition in Ethiopia was indicated in DHS 2016. And the determinants as well. My question is; what specific value (scientific or methodological) did your study added to the existing body of evidence? Would you please indicate it clearly in your discussions? Keep in mind my comments in #5 above.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript written in an organized and impressive way. There are minor comments I attached and author has to come up with justification for the comments. I attached the comments in word format for details

Reviewer #3: The author need to address the all the comments properly.

The article can be a good addition in the field of spatial demography provided that author substantially revise the manuscript as per the suggestions.

Reviewer #4: 1. In the abstract part line 31, says that a stratified two stage cluster sampling was used for to include clusters. however, the stratification and stages of sampling has not available in the manuscript. So it is better you will add it in your manuscript.

2. Your manuscript have no page numbers. You have to add it.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Fira Abamecha

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PLOS One Reviewer.docx

Attachment

Submitted filename: REVIEWER COMMENTS ON GEOGRAPHICAL REGRESSION ON NUTRITION ETHIOPIA.docx

Attachment

Submitted filename: Reviewers Comments.docx

Using geographically weighted regression Analysis to cluster under-nutrition and its predictors among under-five children in Ethiopia: Evidence from demographic and health survey

PONE-D-20-27277R1

Dear Dr. sharew,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Srinivas Goli, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

All comments have been addressed

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #4: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: Thank you Authors. The comments I raised were adequately addressed and in a coherent way. The research is well edited and addressed issues I raised in the previous review process. The only point I have is that figures given are too many and if there is a way to shorten it , the paper will be clear for the readers of the article.

Reviewer #4: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: Yes: Adem Abdulkadir Abdi

Reviewer #4: No