PONE-D-21-40233Prevalence of Dermatological Manifestations due to Face Mask Use during COVID-19 and its' Associated Factors: A Cross-sectional Survey among the General Population of BangladeshPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ara,

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.

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• Reporting of P values: Table 2 includes p values reported in in 3, 4 and 5 digits. Please report exact p-values for all values greater than or equal to 0.001. P-values less than 0.001 may be expressed as p < 0.001, or as exponentials in studies of genetic associations. For more details, please refer to statistical reporting for PLOS ONE available at   https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines.
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Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 26 2022 11:59PM. 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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Syed Ghulam Sarwar Shah, M.B.B.S., M.A., M.Sc., Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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2. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Comments to the Author

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

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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: The manuscript is technically sound and author has made all data in manuscript fully available. The manuscript is well written and in intelligent manner. However few references are not in Vancouver style, which need to be revised. Reference no 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24. The new idea from the study is that the dermatoloical manifestion with face mask are higher and usually this was seen in the cases with wearing of surgical mask and when they are used for longer duration as well as those person who are obese or having any skin problem so for prevention of all these problems there is strong need to take the dermatoloical expert opinion regarding the quality type of face mask in the mass population.

Reviewer #2: The article is a survey study questioning the dermatological findings related to the use of face mask.

The article is written in a generally understandable flowing style. However, some minor errors were detected.

I suggest the following corrections.

- In the sentence of 'Surgical mask users reported more complaints than regular masks, and prolonged use caused more skin symptoms.' on line 35, regular mask can be specified more clearly and other expression can be used instead of regular, which may be better if it includes other masks in parentheses.

- In the survey, it should be clearly stated how the definition of obesity is made. Is it according to the participant's own definition, according to the interviewer, or body mass index? In addition, participants who are obese are not specified in Table 1.

- There are 4 types of masks in Table 1, the other mask is not specified.

- I think in line 152, figure 1 is placed in the wrong place.

- In Table 2, which statistical test is used should be indicated as a note under the table.

- In Table 2, the p value related to others and age is not specified.

- In Table 2, the p value between Average facemask use per week and acne could be <0.001 instead of 0.0005. Again, it would be better if other 5-digit p values were written as 4-digits.

- p<0.001 might be better than p=0.000 in line 172 and table 3.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Prof Dr Meharunnissa Khaskheli

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-21-40233R1Prevalence of Dermatological Manifestations due to Face Mask Use and its Associated Factors during COVID-19 among the General Population of Bangladesh: A Nationwide Cross-sectional SurveyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Ara,

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.

 Please submit your revised manuscript by May 16 2022 11:59PM. 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:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Syed Ghulam Sarwar Shah, M.B.B.S., M.A., M.Sc., Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Please address the issues raised by the reviewer(s).

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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

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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 #1: Manuscript is fulfilling the criteria of Plosone , accepted to for publication. This is good effort best research work by the author for writing the manuscript and fulfilling the criteria of manuscript for the joural. So this acceptableb for the publication.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Recommendations reviewer

I think that there is an important and relevant story in this study and I recommend your publication. The prevalence of dermatological manifestations due to face mask use during covid-19 is a very relevant theme. However minor revision is necessary.

Method

A structured questionnaire was utilized to evaluate fot Facemask-related dermatological. This questionnaire was submittig to evaluate for specialists before to study? Or carried out pilot test?

Discussion

In the line 237: From the opinions about the preference of face mask types, cotton cloth masks were more 238 preferable and comfortable among our study participants. Rather, dermatological problems were 239 profound among the surgical facemask users. This outcome is noteworthy, as this predilection 240 significantly can help in decreasing the demand for surgical masks among general people and 241 should be reserved for the healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A A prospective 242 survey was conducted in Thailand, where the effects of facemask use have been compared among 243 the healthcare providers and non-healthcare general citizens (24). This survey showed some 244 similar outcomes along with a higher risk of skin problems among the healthcare workers. This is 245 very obvious, as health care workers (HCW) use facemask more frequently and for a longer 246 duration than the non-HCWs.

The comparison with health professionals and the time of use of masks with population data does not seem to be fair, as several factors must be taken into account, as well as the time of use, which may be longer among some individuals in the general population who works for long periods with masks depending on their work activity, not just health professionals.

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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: Meharunnissa Khaskheli

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Fernanda Ávila

[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.

Prevalence of Dermatological Manifestations due to Face Mask Use and its Associated Factors during COVID-19 among the General Population of Bangladesh: A Nationwide Cross-sectional Survey

PONE-D-21-40233R2

Dear Dr. Ara,

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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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,

Syed Ghulam Sarwar Shah, M.B.B.S., M.A., M.Sc., Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Many thanks for submitting your revised manuscript and successfully addressing all issues raised by the academic editor and reviewers.

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 #3: 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 #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #3: 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 #3: 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 #3: 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 #3: All recommendations have been carried out. The manuscript is relevant and important. I consider accepted for the publication.

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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 #3: Yes: Fernanda Ávila