Peer Review History
| Original SubmissionJuly 24, 2021 |
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PONE-D-21-24082 Latent Classes Associated with the Future Use of a Symptom Checker for Self-Triage by Young Adults PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Aboueid, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. ============================== ACADEMIC EDITOR: Please see comments below ============================== Please submit your revised manuscript by 18.9.2021. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:
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Kind regards, Dejan Dragan, PhD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 2. In the Methods section of the manuscript, please provide additional information regarding the steps taken to validate the questionnaire used in the study. 3. We note that the figure in your supporting information contain copyrighted images. 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If you are unable to obtain permission from the original copyright holder to publish these figures under the CC BY 4.0 license or if the copyright holder’s requirements are incompatible with the CC BY 4.0 license, please either i) remove the figure or ii) supply a replacement figure that complies with the CC BY 4.0 license. Please check copyright information on all replacement figures and update the figure caption with source information. If applicable, please specify in the figure caption text when a figure is similar but not identical to the original image and is therefore for illustrative purposes only. Additional Editor Comments: The reviewers have completed their reviews. Three of them require a minor revision, while the fourth insists on the major revision. My decision is: A major revision. Please, follow all comments carefully and fix them. AE DD [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] 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 Reviewer #3: Yes Reviewer #4: Yes ********** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes Reviewer #3: Yes Reviewer #4: Yes ********** 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: No Reviewer #3: No Reviewer #4: No ********** 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 Reviewer #3: Yes Reviewer #4: Yes ********** 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: This manuscript analyzed the hidden factors for future use of a AI-based symptom checker for self-triage. Though this manuscript is well-written, I have sever comments. Major comments: 1) Why the authors focus on young adults? Is there any specific reason without comparison on older adults? 2) Why the authors choose only "non-users" for their analysis? It should be comparison results between users and non-users. 3) Why five latent classes are chosen for future analysis? It seems too arbitrary. 4) How the authors control the confounders? There is no explanation on controlling confounders. Please describe it. 5) What are the exact number of samples? It is confusing. A total of 1,547 students. 12 (under 18) and 2 (over 34) are removed. This means 1533 (1547 - 14). And 180 respondents are users. This derives 1533-180=1353. But the manuscript mentioned 1,365 samples and after removing missing data, 1,305. Which one is correct? Minor comments: 6) The legends of Table 1 and Table 2 are the same. Please revise it. Reviewer #2: In their manuscript, Aboueid et al. present results from a survey among university students aged 18-34 years regarding their attitude towards, and use of, symptom checkers used for self-triage. They identify 5 latent classes representing attitude profiles - tech acceptors, tech rejectors, skeptics, tech seekers, and unsure acceptors. According to their analysis, tech seekers are the most likely and tech rejectors are the least likely to use symptom checkers in the future. While their results provide interesting and novel insights into attitudes that may promote or hinder the acceptance of symptom checkers in different population subgroups, several shortcomings need to be addressed before publication of this manuscript. 1. The study likely suffers from self-selection bias because it only includes participants who opened a link in an email. This should at least be discussed. 2. How were the items on the questionnaire chosen? 3. The latent classes are inferred from “non-users”, and the authors give transparent reasons for this choice. However, they should retrospectively determine in which latent class the “users” fall - are they e.g. tech acceptors or seekers? 4. The fit statistics are not substantially worse for the cases of fewer latent classes. If a smaller number of latent classes (2, 3 or 4) is chosen, do the 5 classes end up in separate classes? This would validate their separation; it is hinted at in the manuscript but should be demonstrated explicitly. 5. A major shortcoming of this study is that it was only conducted in one defined population. It would substantially increase the impact of the study if the authors could confirm whether equivalent latent classes are also observed in other populations. At the very least, this shortcoming should be discussed in the manuscript. 6. Why do tech seekers have higher odds of symptom checker use than tech acceptors, despite finding them less accessible? This is counter-intuitive and should be discussed in detail. 7. The authors mention the significance of their work for public health, but the immediate impact of their results is not clear. They argue that members of the different latent classes may need to be targeted differently in public health interventions, but apart from ease of use or access to symptom checkers, their results suggest that a more general lack of trust in AI is also shown by some participants. It would be very helpful if the authors could expand on this point, suggesting explicitly in what way their results could be taken into account for public health interventions. Reviewer #3: The manuscript provides an interesting insight into the attitudes of unversity students towards symptom checker applications. It is well written and even more details are presented in the supplement. However, the raw data are not published. I have some minor questions/comments to the manuscript: 1. Page 5, row 115: the participants of the interviews were from the same population as the study targets, i.e. university students? please indicate this in the text 2. Page 9, row 173: why is "gender" mentioned in the footnote for race? please review and correct if necessary 3. Page 9, row 178: "fair" was also categorized into "good health", and only "poor" (and "don't know") were grouped into the main category "poor"? 4. Page 13, Table 6: footnotes 4-6 only repeat the content of the table cell, I think they are not necessary and can be removed Reviewer #4: I overall enjoyed reading the work, also, due to its high relevance and real life applicability. I only have some minor questions about details. Introduction: - In the introduction the purpose, the necessity and the real life application of the study is clearly stated and explained - It is also clear which models are used and why these models are chosen Materials and methods: - Overall this chapter is also described really clearly - There is only one thing, which I do not really understand. How are the eight categorical variables chosen? In the bottom of page fife is written: “LCA was used on survey data to identify underlying latent variables based on observed measured categorical variables (…).” Please specify the process, in which the categorical variables were observed and measured Data set: The data set is very clearly and precisely described. Data Analysis: The data analysis part is clearly and precisely described. Results (Sample): - Tabel1: - Even though the purpose of table 1 is clear, it is not part of the main result and rather a clarification of the sample group. Thus, it is part of the supportive material - There are some highly unbalanced classes in the table. In some cases, you could even argue to remove the underrepresented class and give a statement about a narrower sample group (for example a separation into 1256, 37 and 12 (age group) data points is problematic, since the outcome basically represents an age group of 18-24). Since the goal of the study is to find latent classes and not comparing the demographic groups, one option is to keep the data as it is. But then a disclaimer in the discussion mentioning the distribution / group imbalance is necessary to outline this issue and the limitation to the study - Table2: - As already mentioned in materials and methods I do not understand where the eight parameters are based on. If I compare the parameters from table 2 to the supporting material 2, I can identify the following: o Trust o Credibility o Perceived accessibility o tangibility of the result(s) = Demonstrability ? o healthcare need = Usefulness ? o Perspective on the use of AI (from TAM ? ) o Perceived SC ease of use (from TAM ? ) o Output quality (from TAM ? ) - Please clarify in chapter materials and methods or in results - Table 1 and table 2 have both the same title. Please use titles which supply supporting information about the data show in the table Results (Latent Classes): - In the discussion is written why the 5 class model is better interpretable than the 3 or 4 class model. Please enter a similar explanation here. Otherwise, it seems like an unsubstantial comment - Sentence: “While the BIC and adjusted BIC were slightly higher for the five-class model as compared to the three- and four-class models.” If I compare that statement to table 3 it is not entirely correct. Adjusted BIC is for the 3 class model higher than for the 5 class model. Results (Regression Analysis): Is well explained Discussion: - Overall it is a good discussion outlining the strengths and limitations of the study - Please add the disclaimer about the sample group distribution - there are two "most" in the discussion. Please add specific numbers ********** 6. 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: No Reviewer #2: No Reviewer #3: Yes: Tamas Toth Reviewer #4: No [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. |
| Revision 1 |
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Latent Classes Associated with the Intention to Use a Symptom Checker for Self-Triage PONE-D-21-24082R1 Dear Authors, 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. An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Dejan Dragan, PhD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): The authors have completed a revision of their paper. Already an innovative advanced study has become even better after carefully processed corrections carried out by the authors. Moreover, the answers to reviewers are clear, exact, and transparent. Accordingly, I warmly recommend the acceptance of the paper. The A.E. Dejan Dragan. Reviewers' comments: |
| Formally Accepted |
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PONE-D-21-24082R1 Latent Classes Associated with the Intention to Use a Symptom Checker for Self-Triage Dear Dr. Aboueid: I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Dejan Dragan Academic Editor PLOS ONE |
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