PONE-D-21-31744Performance of the UNICEF/UN Washington Group tool for identifying functional difficulty in rural Zimbabwean childrenPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Dunne,

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 reviewers had a number of minor concerns that must be addressed, including the need for clarification in the presentation of statistics and methodology. The reviewers' comments can be viewed in full, below and in the attached file.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Natasha McDonald, PhD

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: Yes

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: 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 article is interesting and well-written. Moreover, the statistical analysis is well-conducted. I have only the following comment.

1. The statistical methods considered by the authors, with a special focus on the regression approaches, rely on assumptions about the nature of the underlying data. If the data do not meet those assumptions, then the results often are not valid. Therefore, it is important for authors to check if those assumptions are satisfied for the data at hand, at least, approximately.

Reviewer #2: Comments to the Authors

� Abstract

• Abstract section needs some editorial corrections as indicated in the track changes

• The structure of the abstract should follow Plose one’s format

• Indicate the design of the study clearly as indicated in the body of the manuscript

• Mention briefly all statistical analyses used

� Methods:

• Manuscript should stick to Plose one’s format

• Explain how pregnancy was confirmed

• “The ECD assessment took 2-3 hours and was conducted in the child’s home”. How the investigators overcome resistance that may arise from the respondent’s side?

• Nothing mentioned in the methods section how nutritional indices and dietary diversity were measured unless it was described in other papers. Explain

� Results

• Are well organized.

• However, make clear whether the odds ratio mentioned in table 4 is the adjusted one or not.

• Lines 356-370 should appear before Table 5

� Discussion

• “Disability was defined by the WGCFM, with concurrent validity assessed using the MDAT as a comparator”. Do we need definition of concept in discussion section?

• The authors should paraphrase the key messages in the first paragraph of the discussion as per the specific objectives of the study before commencing any discussion while highlighting on objectives of the study.

• Summarize discussion of each key finding in a single paragraph

• Implication of each key finding was not discussed in detailbeyond theoretical discussion

• The limitation of the study needs to be described in detail.

� Conclusion and recommendations should be bold enough

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Gudina Egata

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments to the Author_ performance.docx

Performance of the UNICEF/UN Washington Group tool for identifying functional difficulty in rural Zimbabwean children

PONE-D-21-31744R1

Dear Dr. Dunne,

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,

Dr Joseph Donlan

Senior 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

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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

**********

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: No

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