PONE-D-24-09879Impact of Occupational Stress on Family Members of Healthcare Workers Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A systematic reviewPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tekin,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.==============================

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #2: N/A

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: 1. Please explain why Lorenzo and Carrisi (2020) is included in this SR? Seems this paper is not talking about mental health / stress related issue.

2. Please provide AXIS total scores or percentage scores of each included papers to support your comment that most of the studies included in this review met the criteria for high-quality research.

Thank you.

Reviewer #2: I am pleased to review manuscript ID PONE-D-24-09879. I appreciate the authors' remarkable work. However, I have provided some critical comments below to help improve the paper.

Best of luck,

Your Reviewer

Comments and Recommendations

General Comments

• Title and Abstract:

o The title is somewhat confusing, especially when referencing "before and during COVID-19." This suggests the study is solely about COVID-19 impacts post-2020, yet the search includes studies from 1980 and papers from 2005 onward. Consider adding a timeline in the title to align with the study results as per PubMed.

o The abstract is clear and well-organized.

Methods

o Please add the heading of Study Design and Registration for the first paragraph of method.

o Please consider cite the PRISMA checklist guidelines in the method section.

• Study Characteristics:

o Include details on the highest and lowest sample sizes in the included studies, total number of participants, mean age, and age range from the youngest to oldest participant.

• Tables:

o Table 2: Characteristics of the Included Studies:

� Add the first author’s last name and "et al." for studies with three or more authors.

� Specify the specialties of HCWs (e.g., nurses, doctors, dentists) as you have only mentioned HCWs in general for some studies.

o Table 5: Measures Used:

� Standardize the use of acronyms (e.g., GAD) and provide full terms and detailed explanations in the Result section as suggested in my following comment.

o Avoid redundancy maybe by removing the "main findings" column from Table 2 or justify its presence to prevent confusion and duplication with Table 5.

Results and Discussion

• Paragraph on Measures Used:

o Include a detailed paragraph in the results section summarizing the various measures and diagnostic tools used across the included studies.

• Strengths and Limitations of Included Papers:

o Clarify the point about the literature gap regarding research on partners and spouses in same-sex relationships, parents, and siblings of HCWs to ensure readers understand the context clearly.

Reviewer #3: For the title I recommend

"Impact of Occupational Stress on Healthcare Workers' Families Before and During COVID-19: A systematic review".

In the first paragraph of the introduction you mentioned statistics for healthcare workers (HCWs) in the UK in 2023, while you motioned statistics globally for 2020?

Use the passive voice.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Darya Rostam Ahmed

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments on PONE-D-24-09879.docx

PONE-D-24-09879R1Impact of Occupational Stress on Healthcare Workers' Family Members Before and During COVID-19: A systematic reviewPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tekin,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 18 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Sirwan Khalid Ahmed

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Authors,

Please make the following revisions to the manuscript based on the suggestions provided:

1. In the Study Characteristics section, please include citations in square brackets [ ] for each individual study conducted both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, include citations for surveys and interviews, years of publication, and for each country separately. This will help to clearly identify the specific studies that were included in your review.

2. Please provide citations in square brackets [ ] along with the names of the authors in Tables 2 and 5.

3. Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative studies in Table 2. It may be beneficial to create an additional table specifically for this purpose. Furthermore, please mention this distinction in the main text.

4. The text includes references from citation number 51 to 66. Authors, please clarify the purpose of including these various citations. It is important to appropriately reference the articles included in this review (for scales). Additionally, you may use citations 51 or 66 for further clarification.

5. Add the AMSTAR checklist, for ensuring  level of  your paper as a supplementary file. Also mention in the method section.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Impact of Occupational Stress on Healthcare Workers' Family Members Before and During COVID-19: A systematic review

PONE-D-24-09879R2

Dear Dr. Sahra Tekin,

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,

Sirwan Khalid Ahmed

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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