PONE-D-23-19791Exploring the Factors Behind Socioeconomic Disparities in Antenatal Care (ANC) Utilization across Five South Asian Nations: A Decomposition Approach.PLOS ONE

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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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: 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

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Reviewer #1: A section mentioning the Socioeconomic statuus of each of the population group in the five countries would be helpful.It may be included in the methodology section(Profile of the Study area ) as it would set the context of the study.

Reviewer #2: This manuscript examines very serious issue of public health as the authors indicate that there is a great variation in the utilization of antenatal care services among the five South Asian Nations. The present work shows that due to variation in the different socio-demographic aspects, the variations in the utilization of antenatal care services also found in the different countries. The manuscript used recent round of nationally representative database to assess the determining factors of utilization of antenatal care services. In my assessment, this manuscript highlighted some important findings which will help for policy implementations. However, the authors are suggested to minor revision in their manuscript. Comments are mentioned below:

1. The authors were taken at least four ANC visits during pregnancy as antenatal care variable in the present study but why not taken full ANC i.e. at least four ANC visits during pregnancy, at least two tetanus injections and at least 100 or more IFA tablets among the different South Asian countries?

2. The authors are suggested to add the rationality for the selection of five South Asian nations in the present study.

3. Women’s autonomy, mass media exposure and male involvement play a vital role for the utilization of antenatal care services among the women but in the present study the authors did not included in their model but why?

4. Discussion section need to be improve in proper manner.

5. I would like to emphasize that the paper needs to check for some typo errors, proofreading, and minor explanations as per the above suggestions.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Parama Bannerji

Reviewer #2: No

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Exploring the Factors Behind Socioeconomic Inequalities in Antenatal Care (ANC) Utilization across Five South Asian Nations: A Decomposition Approach.

PONE-D-23-19791R1

Dear Dr. tohan,

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.

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Kind regards,

Jay Saha

Academic Editor

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

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: I have received satisfactory response from the author.

I hereby request ypu to accept the submission and publish it.

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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: No

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