PONE-D-23-23377Visual impairment and its associated factors among diabetes patients in Ethiopia: Systematic review and Meta-analysisPLOS ONE

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https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0276194

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tmi.13684

https://dmsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13098-021-00704-w

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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: 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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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: No

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: Comments to Author (PONE-D-23-23377)

Thank you, I am happy for the chance to review this kind of manuscript. Here below are my comments on the manuscript.

This is a well-written and important study highlighting Visual impairment and its associated factors among diabetes patients in Ethiopia. There are aspects I have great concern-on topic synthesis

1. In almost all of your individual studies included in your meta-analysis, the topic was “prevalence and associated factors of diabetic retinopathy, but your title said “Visual impairment and its associated factors among diabetes patients in Ethiopia: systematic review and Meta-analysis”. Do you believe that the terms "visual impairment" and "diabetic retinopathy" are similar? I have noticed also an existing systematic review in Ethiopia," Diabetic retinopathy in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. It seems your results are overlapping, including, in part, same studies.”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871402119302036?via%3Dihub.

In addition, when we see your discussion, the literatures used was focuses on diabetic retinopathy rather than on visual impairment and associated factors. Are you going to compare unrelated studies?

2. Before resubmission, a person proficient in written English edits the manuscript. It is important that the message being conveyed in the manuscript is as unambiguous as possible. For instance, here are some examples of language related problems.

Abstract

Page-2 -rewrite the vague sentence “Although numerous attempts have been made to ascertain the occurrence of visual impairment and its associated factors among diabetes patients in Ethiopia, several original studies have reported incongruous results” to

Page-3-Change literatures to literature

Page-3 change ‘from’ to on

Page 3-4 change is to are (patients is needed).

P 3 Line 66-67 please rewrite or remove these sentence in your abstract conclusion i.e. “Therefore, diabetic patients should engage in regular physical activity, control their glycemic level with proper use of medications, manage co morbid hypertension, and have regular eye exams”.

3. Page 4 Line 85 to 86, I believe there are more recent sources, for instance, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372489279_The_burden_of_visual_impairment_among_Ethiopian_adult_population_Systematic_review_and_meta-analysis

4. Why you limited the numbers of keywords for your search? Especially related to individuals studies included in your references like “retinopathy, diabetic retinopathy and cataract etc.”

Reviewer #2: The authors have produced an excellent paper by effectively implementing a sound procedure and executing appropriate steps to address the encountered problem. Here are my concerns

1.The study by Abere and colleagues, outlined in their paper on the determinants of diabetic retinopathy, uncovered a factor linked to this condition. What unique contribution does your research bring to the table in terms of novelty?

2.Multiple cross-sectional prevalence studies have been conducted on this topic within the country. What specific contribution do you aim to make to the scientific community with your research?

3.What is the criteria to say that the level of visual impairment is high?

4. Poor definition of visual impairment you have to had a scientific definition ?

5. Where is supplemental table 3 ( risk of bias assessment ) ?

6. Improve English language editing

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

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Submitted filename: Comments to Author 1.docx

Visual impairment among diabetes patients in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

PONE-D-23-23377R1

Dear Dr. Aytenew,

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,

Mohammed Feyisso Shaka, MPH

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

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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: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: 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: 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

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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)

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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: Dilnessa Fentie

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