PONE-D-20-37311

Effects of taping techniques on arch deformation in adults with pes planus: A meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

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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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

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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

Reviewer #2: 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: Thank you authors for manuscuripts. As a result of the evaluation;

1. The authors has made objective clearly stated and clinically relevant and focused study question included

2. Authors has made Comprehensive literature search conducted and searched information sources listed (ie, PubMed, Cochrane database). Terms used for electronic literature search provided, author may be add terms ‘Pes Planus’

3. Review included at least two reviewers should search sources for articles relevant to the meta-analysis, and the keywords used in the online searches should be provided in the article.

4. Inclusion and exclusion criteria have been defined for studies included in the meta-analysis.

5. The meta-analysis have been provide a table outlining the features of the studies,

6. Review have been a balance between finding studies that are similar and appropriate to combine without becoming too focused and summarize the main findings including the strength of evidence for each main outcome; consider their relevance to key groups. Discuss limitations at study and outcome level.

As far as I have seen, there is only one article on MDL. According to one article, it is not very convenient to reach conclusions about the effectiveness of MDL after walking 10min. More article results should be given on this subject. It would be appropriate for the author to correct the inference regarding MDL.

Reviewer #2: The overall goal of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of different taping techniques on pes planus with regards to improving their medial arch deformation. To the reviewer’s point of view, this is an important aspect which has not been comprehensively reviewed before, and it can bring valuable knowledge to the clinicians and researchers. There are a few number of limitations in this manuscript.

Line 14: A verb is required to be added to the sentence “Modified low-dye taping technique could perform better in maintaining navicular height in adults with pes planus after walking for 10 minutes than Augmented low-Dye”

Line 38: As the authors talk about correcting talus position later in the introduction, it is suggested to address the problem that happens to the talus of pes planus, and not just arch deformity. Talus is more a part of rearfoot rather than the medial arch

Line 43: The reviewer suggests using a more appropriate phrase instead of “cushioning ground impact”. It can be probably a phrase like “absorb/ attenuate the impact force”

Line 47-49: “Pes planus is more common in male and adolescents with higher BMI index4, this condition even continues to adulthood without timely and effective intervention”. This sentence is not clear for the reviewer. The authors are requested to re-write it more clearly.

Line 54-56: The authors have suddenly jumped from neuromuscular training to orthoses without explaining anything about orthoses. It is recommended that the authors start with a primary sentence explaining that orthoses are another common treatment for pes planus. However, the orthosis is not efficient in correcting the talus deviation.

Line 67: The authors have mentioned one size for taping. The question is that are they always the same size?

Line 104-106: Although the authors always talk about pes planus as an alternative word to flatfoot and over-pronated foot, they did not use the “pes planus” as a keyword for their searching strategy. Is there a specific reason for that? Is it possible that the authors have missed a study/ studies because of that?

Line 116-120: The inclusion criteria has been mentioned to be navicular drop over 8 mm during walking. Do the authors mean that they excluded the papers which used static foot posture to identify flatfoot (e.g. foot posture index, arch index, footprints, MRI, ...)?

Figure 3: Can the authors make the x-axis range smaller so that the results of each study for 95% of confidence interval can be observed more clearly? For example, the scale of axis for subplot G can be reduced to [-10, 10] instead of [-100, 100].

Line 326-329: I recommend the authors to transfer these sentences to the discussion rather than their results, as it is not the outcome of the current study.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Effects of taping techniques on arch deformation in adults with pes planus: A meta-analysis

PONE-D-20-37311R1

Dear Mr. Hu,

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,

Slavko Rogan

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 #2: 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

**********

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

Reviewer #2: 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

**********

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

**********

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: My comments have been adequately addressed. The authors could modify the manuscript based on the comments and suggestions of the reviewers. I think this meta-analysis can bring valuable knowledge to the

clinicians and researchers.

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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: No