PONE-D-23-27580Outcome Measures for Young People with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Qualitative Exploration of Healthcare Professionals' Perceptions and PracticesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Alamrani,

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PLOS ONE

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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: N/A

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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: Overall comment:

Although the present study is having a very limited number of participants, this study has a significance for the HCPs that must be perceived as a valuable parameter for using Oms. The obtained results are of original research in this study and lay emphasis on the current practice of following and implementing HCPs. The study design and methodologies used herein are scientifically sound and are described in sufficient details. Furthermore, this study contributes to the aspect of encouraging all the participants (surgeons, nurses and physiotherapists etc.) to understand the importance of such data to overcome the barriers and improve the quality of life of individuals with AIS. Conclusions drawn upon by the authors conform in an appropriate fashion and are supported by relevant references. The ethics of experimentation and research integrity is satisfactorily applied in this study. The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability. Limited knowledge, and awareness to support the use PROMs by the healthcare individuals as well as the patients along with their facilitators, challenge such efforts and work as barriers that constrain PROMs use, while providing support and having quality PROMs facilitate its use to act as an enhancer to the use of performance measures among this population. Such works need to be carried out at a larger level and the present study can provide impetus to achieve this goal in near future.

Background:

The authors make two statements:

(lines 92-94) that “Nevertheless, variables that could improve or limit the usefulness of such measurements in individuals with AIS remain unknown.”

(lines 100-102) that “To date, no research has explored current practice of using OMs for individuals with AIS, or health care professionals’ (HCPs) perceived barriers and facilitators of all forms of OMs.”

These two statements stand diluted with their third statement:

(lines 98-100) that “Current research mostly focus on PROMs, with little exploration of the use of performance measures or the impact of population characteristics such as age, gender and curve severity on the use of OMs in AIS.”

Why the authors mention ‘with little exploration of the use of…….? It creates confusion in understanding the significance of this study. An appropriate statement is needed to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding to the researchers.

Results:

Results are systematically collected and are pooled in well-defined objectives.

The objectives are well-designed and the information about the barriers in collecting such data may help in to design a better approach to explore studies in a larger cohort with more improvisations.

Reviewer #2: Dear authors,

I appreciate you giving me the chance to read this excellent paper. I had a great time reading it. But I do have a few issues that need to be addressed.

Line 57 Page 2: The abbreviation should ideally be between brackets.

Line 114 Page 5: How did you preserve the autonomy and confidentiality of the participants?

How the information was kept safe and secure?

Line 119 Page 5: in line with (the COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative studies) Please fix the capital, small letters issue

Line 119 Page 5: What kind of study design was applied? Could you perhaps add one or two sentences outlining the research design?

Line 147 Page 6: discuss the measures taken to maintain the study's rigor and trustworthiness.

Line 148 Page 6: Please add a diagram summarizing the data analysis steps

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Outcome Measures for Young People with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Qualitative Exploration of Healthcare Professionals' Perceptions and Practices

PONE-D-23-27580R1

Dear Dr. Alamrani,

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,

Abera Mersha, MSc.

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

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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

**********

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

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

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

**********

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

**********

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: Great work. I don’t have any further comments and wish the authors the very best of luck with their publication.

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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

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