PONE-D-21-26679Determinants of mammography screening participation – A cross-sectional analysis of the German population-based Gutenberg Health Study (GHS)PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Roman Pokora,

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“The GHS is funded through contract AZ 961-386261/733 from the government of Rhineland-Palatinate (“Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation”); the research programs “Wissen schafft Zukunft” and “Center for Translational Vascular Biology” of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; and its contract with Boehringer Ingelheim and Philips Medical Systems, including an unrestricted grant for the GHS. This study was also supported by grant BMBF 01EO1503 from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.”

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Reviewers' comments:

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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: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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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: It is a technically sound study, well conducted and a well written manuscript. Would be nice to add a little detail about the mammography invitation process for the non-German reader. I feel it would be important to explore perhaps as a separate study, the reasons behind the decrease in mammography (recently) with higher education. Are they accessing bad information on social media or misinterpreting information about radiation exposure etc. This may inform further decisions and the invitation process may need to have more detailed information on dispelling the myths.

Reviewer #2: The article addresses an important matter regarding participation in screening mammography programs. Participation in screening programs is mostly affected by knowledge/awareness, access and personal beliefs. Being a smoker or alcohol consumer, BMI etc can have a direct relation with increasing breast cancer risk, but PARTICIPATING or not participating in a free mammography screening program due to these factors doesn't make sense. Also p-values and data could not be found so exact significance of these variables could not be ascertained.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Determinants of mammography screening participation – A cross-sectional analysis of the German population-based Gutenberg Health Study (GHS)

PONE-D-21-26679R1

Dear Dr. Pokora,

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,

Edward Jay Trapido, ScD

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

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

Reviewer #3: No

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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

Reviewer #3: No

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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 #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 #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: (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 #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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