PONE-D-20-16786

Magnitude, components and predictors of metabolic syndrome in Northern Ethiopia: Evidences from regional NCDs STEPS survey, 2016

PLOS ONE

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Paolo Magni

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please fully address the reviewer's comments.

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: 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: No

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4. 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 #1: 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: The title of the article is "Magnitude, components and predictors of metabolic syndrome in Northern Ethiopia: Evidences from regional NCDs STEPS survey, 2016".

The authors conducted a community based cross sectional study. This study aimed to assess magnitude, components, and predictors of metabolic syndrome in Tigray region northern Ethiopia, 2016.

This is a quite interesting study. However, the manuscript still could be further improved after some revisions.

Specific comments:

1. In Methods section; Statistical analyses, please clarify, what method that used for adjusting in multivariate analysis? Please provide test for interaction between variables, goodness of fit, and multicollinearity. In addition, please demonstrate flowchart of participants. If non-probability convenience sampling was employed. This limitation of the study might affect generalizability.

2. Data collection: Who interviewed the participants? Were they doctors, nurses, medical students, or research investigators? Were they trained before administered the questionnaires? How the authors deal with missing data?

3. Data collection: By how many people, in how long time, where? The time of interview for each person? Missing values?

4. Include full details of how the authors handled missing data and outliers in the ‘Methods’ section.

5. The main concern is that the questionnaires should be validated and have good reliability and validity. Reliability of questionnaires should be mentioned. Please provide citation and reference of the questionnaire. The English peer-review reference should be placed.

6. Please describe the detail of Tigray region northern Ethiopia; such as is it rural or urban community, the number of population and population structure.

7. It is important that within the manuscript, the authors clarify the importance of this work, how it differs from and advances previously published work and how this article can benefit the field and patients in the future etc. Please also add more information from recently published research and offer a more speculative and forward-looking perspective.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Wisit Kaewput

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Magnitude, components and predictors of metabolic syndrome in Northern Ethiopia: Evidences from regional NCDs STEPS survey, 2016

PONE-D-20-16786R1

Dear Dr. Kiros Fenta Ajemu,

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.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Paolo Magni

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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 #1: 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 #1: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: 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 #1: Yes

**********

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 #1: Yes

**********

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 #1: (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 #1: Yes: Wisit Kaewput