PONE-D-21-11284Clinical profile of HIV-infected adultsreceiving aholistic approach of care model in Nakawa, Kampala District

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. SENDAULA,

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.

The manuscript has been evaluated by two reviewers, and their comments are available below. The reviewers have raised a number of concerns that need attention. They request additional information on methodological aspects of the study, revisions to the statistical analyses and a revision of the English grammar. Could you please revise the manuscript to carefully address the concerns raised?

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Elisa Panada

Associate Editor

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: Partly

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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: No

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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: Thanks for the opportunity to review this work on HIV and person-centred care.This is a well written manuscript however, this manuscript will be much clearer to readers if the following points are reviewed and modified:

1. Line 46: Could the author clarify what the 2020 mile stone is about?

2. Line 58 and 63 appeared repetitive, could the author revise this without the repetitions?

3. The sentence towards the end of line 73-75 seems incomplete although it read like the aim/objective of the study, therefore author should review this sentence as appropriate.

4. Line 80-81 Could the author describe what a holistic approach of care model is? What specifically were the patients receiving or what are the care components?

5. Line 104-105 Could the author state the ethics approval reference numbers for the 2 ethics bodies?

6. Line 158 could the author clarify if they are writing viral load or viral road?

7. Line 162 Could the author stick to either 'percent' or '%' for consistency

8. Line 167-169 Could the author revise this statement about 'viral load non-suppression' its a bit confusing to say 'reduced the likelihood of viral load non-suppression by 65%'. If the author is reporting a reduction in viral load suppression by 65%, then state that, and avoid the term 'non-suppression'. This has been mentioned a few times throughout the manuscript, please review and revise.

9. Line 180-181 Could the author define the abbreviations used

10. Line 183-186 Could the author revise the strengths of this study, as this cannot only focus on using a 'well-trained professionals' to collect data.

11. Line 194-196 This final statement is not quite clear...what is the relationship between age, adherence and the use of holistic approaches?

Reviewer #2: The authors reported the clinical profiles of PLHUV receiving holistic care in Nakawa. There are some comments and questions below

Abstract

1. The reference citation is not needed in the abstract

2. The numbers should not be used for the beginning of the sentences

3. The authors said: 84.5% had VL detectable, and 95.3% had UD VL. Which number is corrected?

4. The authors concluded that holistic care had good effects. However, there is no data on comparing "not holistic care."

Text

1. The reference citation is not needed in the abstract. Thus, it should start with 1 in the main text section

2. UNAIDS data is needed to be updated

3. What is the definition of holistic care/system? Please explain in detail and what is the difference from the standard/routine care in the method section

4. The study should be a retrospective cohort study rather than a cross-sectional study

5. Why do the authors use stratified random sampling? Does this mean that all areas there use a holistic system?

6. If possible, systemic randomized should not be used due to the bias. Please explain why using this sampling method

7. What is the statistical program used in this study?

8. Tables should be moved to the back, and more texts are needed to describe the details of the results

9. The abbreviation should be stated under each table

10. Table 4, what is the definition of good adherence?

11. Table 3 and 4, for continuous variables, please try to analyze as a continuous variable and compare the results

12. Table 4, why use the outcome of VL non-suppression. But, the authors discuss VL suppression.

13. Please check references: order and format (e.g., authors list and name of the journal)

Others

1. English language is needed to be correct

2. More details in main methods, results, and discuss section are needed

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Mary Abboah-Offei

Reviewer #2: No

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Clinical profile of HIV-infected adults receiving a holistic approach of care model in Nakawa, Kampala District

PONE-D-21-11284R1

Dear Dr. SENDAULA,

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,

Carla Pegoraro

Division 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

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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

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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

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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: The author has addressed tall the comments made in the first review therefore there is no further comment.

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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: Mary Abboah-Offei

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