PONE-D-21-35177

Low husband involvement in maternal and child health services and intimate partner violence increases the odds of postpartum depression in northwest Ethiopia: a community-based study

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tsega,

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 Jun 02 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,

Ammal Mokhtar Metwally, Ph.D (MD)

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please note that your manuscript was reviewed by 2 experts in the field. There is consensus agreement that the idea of the article is interesting. Meanwhile, some of the reviewers identified important problems in your submission and provided copious comments. Please consider responding to the reviewers’ remarks. The manuscript could be greatly strengthened by considering editing according to the specific mentioned comments.

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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?

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: There are a number of terms that need additional explanation or definitions throughout the text. There are statements that require more clarity. The discussion section doesn't really tell us anything. Such a huge part of it is spent discussing the differences in PPD prevalence between your study and other studies, which isn't really telling the reader anything helpful. Very little time is spent talking about what you learned from the study that is new information. There is no discussion of future research that is needed. There are no specific recommendations about what to do to address the issues addressed in your paper. I am left think so what when I read the paper. Yes we now know this about PPD in Gondor, but what should be done to address that issue? What else should be considered when looking more into this topic in that setting or in other parts of Ethiopia? The discussion and conclusion sections need to be reworked so they are actually telling us something useful.

Reviewer #2: Overall, the manuscript is good and has been organized well. I have a few comments to improve the manuscript as follows:

1. Abstract: the abstract is good and concise. However, I noticed you didn’t write anything about the discussion that you mentioned in the manuscript.

-in the result of the abstract section, you mentioned MNCH and in the conclusion, you have written, ‘maternal and child health’. Two are the same things. please keep consistency.

2. Introduction: You could add some references on IPV in the national and local context that could strengthen your argument in the paper.

- you mentioned you did not compare the PPD screening tool with the national guideline? Why? What was the gap in the national guideline? Did you explore or analyze it?

3. Method: In the method section, you said that you choose samples from mothers who were first- time mothers and who had experienced multiple pregnancies. Can you mention how many Primi mothers you have interviewed who were suffering from depression?

-can you explain clearly the lottery method or any reference?

-Two data collectors completed 757 interviews while nonresponse rate was 10%. They collected data within a single month. How many interviews did they conduct per day? How the data quality was checked? Can you explain it a bit more?

4. Result:

You have mentioned women’s socio-cultural aspects were linked to postpartum depression. How is religious background linked to depression? Would you please explain?

- 92.8% of pregnancy was planned and had family support during pregnancy that you mentioned. If so how this variable was selected as the cause of postpartum depression?

- Family income is another factor you mentioned. I am saying, poverty is a common reason for mental stress in any situation. Why did you particularly mention it as a cause of postpartum depression? Please explain.

- You have focused on IPV more than any other variables you mentioned in the manuscript. But IPV itself is a big area that leads to worse mental health situations. I think you did not mention all the component of IPV that leads to postpartum depression. I encourage you to recheck your data and dig down the path.

5. Discussion: you have written well, but it would be stronger if you could add more references on these issues you have explored in your research.

-What about the national data about postpartum depression. Does it support your data? Did you check other studies in Ethiopia’s other regions that support your data?

-What about the policy implication? How did your data recommend to improve the mental health situation of the women in the country? Please explain

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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

[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.]

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Attachments

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Submitted filename: PONE-D-21-35177_Reviewed.pdf

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-21-35177.docx

PONE-D-21-35177R1Low husband involvement in maternal and child health services and intimate partner violence increases the odds of postpartum depression in northwest Ethiopia: a community-based studyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tsega,

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 Sep 02 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,

Ammal Mokhtar Metwally, Ph.D (MD)

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:

Great effort was made by the authors to utilize the feedback that was provided for them to correct their manuscript. I find it interesting and improved with respect to the original submission. Please consider responding to the reviewers’ remarks. The manuscript could be greatly strengthened by considering editing according to the specific mentioned comments.

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: 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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

**********

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

**********

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

**********

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: Because of the timing of this study, it is important to acknowledge the potential impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic and the conflict in Tigray, as it isn’t too far from Gondor City, on the mental health of the women included in the study.

Evidence collected around the world has shown an increase in IPV during the pandemic, and this would likely have an impact on PPD. Also the pandemic itself has had a massive effect on mental health directly. There is also evidence that living in or near a conflict zone has dramatic impacts on mental health, further exacerbating the chances of PPD. Your study didn’t collect data related to this, but at least acknowledging the potential impacts and that you are comparing your findings to studies pre-COVID could skew the data.

You don’t really “have” IPV, it isn’t a disease, it is something that you experience or is done to you. The language around this topic should be adjusted.

There still needs to be more information in the conclusion/discussion about what the outcomes from this study should be. You talk about policymakers and researchers a little but, but what about practitioners who will be working directly with these patients? What do you recommend as to screening? I'm still not clear on what your recommendations are regarding regular screening for PPD.

Reviewer #2: Review report of D-21-35177:

I would like to thank to the authors who addressed majority of the comments on the issues I raised during my first review. This is an important manuscript having data with mental health issues.

However, still I didn’t understand the lottery method theoretically. If possible, explain it or provide a reference which will help readers to understand.

Wish you good luck!

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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

Reviewer #2: 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.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Review report_D-21-35177_R1.docx

Low husband involvement in maternal and child health services and intimate partner violence increases the odds of postpartum depression in northwest Ethiopia: a community-based study

PONE-D-21-35177R2

Dear Dr. Tsega,

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,

Ammal Mokhtar Metwally, Ph.D (MD)

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 #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: 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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

**********

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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: 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 #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: 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)

Reviewer #2: This manuscript have met its full criteria. I think this will contribute a lot to public health researcher for future research.

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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

Reviewer #2: No

**********

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Submitted filename: Reviewer comments_PONE-D-21-35177_R2.docx