PONE-D-22-23424Development of a Simple Screening Tool for Determining Cognitive Status in Alzheimer’ DiseasePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Chiu,

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

O agree with both reviewers for a minor revision of the manuscript and I think they raised interesting points to imporve the quality of yoou manuscript.

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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: 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: No

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: Authors propose an interesting and easy-to-administer tool for the detection of cognitive impairment and, even more interestingly, for differentiating between MCI and dementia. I certainly encourage this paper to be published because of its likely utility in daily clinical practice.

I only have one minor comment that I would like the authors may discuss. Although they mentioned educational level and, as a matter of fact, they did not find an association with the pathology evolution, in such a study, I would expect some considerations about cognitive reserve and its role in modulating not only the onset, but also the progression of cognitive impairment.

Furthermore, although MMSE has important limitations (clinical, first of all!), it would be helpful also a comparison/a critical consideration or comment referring HAI-SAC to MMSE which is, at the date, the most applied screening test for dementia (authors certainly know that MoCA is more difficult and more focused on executive functions rather than MMSE which is easier and, for some aspects, more suitable for older individuals).

Reviewer #2: Dear Editor, Thank you for your invitation.

ABSTRACT should be re-written in order to provide clearer information to the readers.

Please provide the mean age and female percentage of the study population. How many patients were diagnosed with MCI, AD and control group? What was the sensitivity, specifity of the HAI-SAC to detect MCI and AD? And it would be better ig the authors mention the AUC results about discriminating MCI from NC/AD.

INTRO: The authors should give some examples about short screening tools (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28660847/, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29923472/)

RESULTS is well-written, but is there any information about comorbidities of the patients?

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Maria Deita

Reviewer #2: No

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Development of a Simple Screening Tool for Determining Cognitive Status in Alzheimer’s Disease

PONE-D-22-23424R1

Dear Dr. Chiu,

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,

Alessandra Coin

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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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 #1: No

Reviewer #2: 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

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: (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: Yes: Maria Devita

Reviewer #2: Yes: Pinar Soysal

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