PONE-D-23-02654The impact of the newly developed school-based ‘Digital Health Contact’ – evaluating a health and wellbeing screening tool for adolescents in EnglandPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Porter,

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==============================Dear AuthorThank you for the paper sent. It has been very difficult to find reviewers to review your workPlease pay attention to this major comments. We would like to give the opportunity to review the while we find another strong reviewer for your workBest regards==============================

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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“AP, KD, PA, NW, HF, KB and FDV have declared that no competing interests exists.

I have read the journal's policy and authors CM and ST have the following competing interests: CM is employed at the DHCs commissioning organisation (at Leicester City Council), and ST is employed at the DHCs provider organisation (at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust). This study, and the wider research project evaluating the DHC, has been co-produced with the DHC’s commissioners (at Leicester City Council) and providers (at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust). The commissioner and the provider are committed to helping to facilitate a robust evaluation of the DHC in order to inform potential changes and wider roll out of the programme. There has been no pressure or influence to modify, restate, weaken, omit or frame findings, conclusions and recommendations from any team member.”

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Partly

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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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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: Dear Authors,

Thank you for submitting your work to the PLOS ONE journal.

The main goal of your work is to evaluate the effectiveness of a digital health and well-being screening tool, and you have called it Digital Health Contact, which is implemented in schools in the East Midlands of England…. Your manuscript needs improvement.

Here are some comments and suggestions:

Abstract:

- The manuscript does not have an abstract, making it difficult for the reader to understand what your manuscript will discuss.

Introduction:

- It’s too short and does not fully explain what your paper will discuss.

- I suggest you change the title of the introduction to Abstract, then after finishing the Abstract part (After discussion). You should write an introduction describing what your paper will discuss.

Background:

- The structure of the paper is not numbered and is very confusing.

Methods:

- It should contain an introductory paragraph to illustrate what this section will discuss.

Results

- It should contain an introductory paragraph to illustrate what this section will discuss.

Conclusion:

The future development of your work should be clarified more. Moreover, some achieved results should be mentioned in this part.

Thank you

Reviewer #2: The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a digital health and wellbeing screening tool, which was implemented in several schools in East Midlands of England. The tool was used to identify pupils with unmet health needs and provide appropriate support.

The paper was well written and the analysis done in this work was clearly described.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Abdullah Almuhaimeed

Reviewer #2: No

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The impact of the newly developed school-based ‘Digital Health Contact’ – evaluating a health and wellbeing screening tool for adolescents in England

PONE-D-23-02654R1

Dear Dr. Porter,

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,

Juan A López-Rodríguez

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments: