PONE-D-23-19452Prevalence and determinants of home delivery among women who had optimal ANC follow-up in Sub-Saharan Africa countries: A Multilevel Analysis of a Recent Demographic and Health SurveyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Alebachew,

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PLOS ONE

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- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36906518/

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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: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: No

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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?

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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: The introduction in the abstract is long and needs to be shortened.

The type of study should be included in the method.

There is no information about existing studies with a similar objective. In this case, the first preference is to conduct studies in similar geographical areas, and the second preference is to conduct studies in other parts of the world where home birth is common.

What has been the shortcoming of the existing studies that the authors have investigated this relationship with the same goal.

Psychological factors such as feeling less fear at home, more comfort of the mother at home and perhaps cultural factors involved in choosing to give birth at home were not seen in this study. It is necessary to consider the limitations of this study.

The results and method are very well written.

It is necessary to write in the method on what basis the leveling is done and what variables each level (such as the individual level) includes? Is this stratification statistical or conceptual or both? It is necessary to address it in the introduction and in the method.

The results need to be reviewed by a statistician.

The flaw that exists in the discussion of the study is that the statistical index (odds ratio) obtained from the present study has not been compared with any other study.

It is necessary to review the study with conflicting results. In the following, the reason for the difference will be explained.

Reviewer #2: Title: The title is too long and seems to be carrying terms that are not relevant and can be included in the objectives e.g. if the authors remove the terms prevalence and determinants as well as the survey statement, then include these in the objectives and methodology, respectively.

Lines 140 and 142 are a repetition of "sex of household head".

Lines 140 and 145 are also a repetition of "wealth index".

Lines 186 and 194 have the spelling for Sub wrong and put as Sab.

The font size is not uniform- especially in the following lines- 276 and 360.

Line 305 statement is not consistent with the information in the rest of the paragraph. Maybe the authors meant ".......associated with hospital delivery" not "....home delivery" which they put in that statement.

Statistical analysis: I think there is too much statistics on ORs and this tends to to be very confusing and will limit readership to only those who are well conversant with detailed statistics. I propose the details on ORs and tables be trimmed and summarized to make it more clearer and understandable to majority of the audience.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: leila Amiri

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr Grace Danda

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Home delivery among women who had optimal ANC follow-up in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Analysis

PONE-D-23-19452R1

Dear Dr. Alebachew,

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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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,

Kahsu Gebrekidan

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: (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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

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 Response)

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: (No Response)

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: The authors have clearly addressed all the areas that I had highlighted earlier. The statistical analysis query has also been explained and rationalized.

The article seems perfect and publishable.

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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: leila AmiriFarahani

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr Grace Danda

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