PONE-D-23-42353Alcohol outlet density and adolescent drinking behaviors in Thailand, 2007–2017: A spatiotemporal mixed model analysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sittisombut,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Authors,

The reviewers have indicated a number of changes and suggestions in the manuscript and in the current format it cannot be considered for publication. I suggest revising the manuscript and submitting the revised version for a new analysis.

Sincerely, Larissa

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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: 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: 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: The study's aim was to explore the relationship between alcohol outlet density and drinking behaviors among Thai adolescents. The manuscript is well-written and has interesting methodology and results, especially to base actions to prevent and combat alcohol consumption by adolescents. However, some minor details need to be revised, mainly in the introduction, and the conclusion with the implications needs to be improved and present more advanced discussions on public policies.

Introduction

The introduction needs a revision of the information presented; readers from outside Thailand need to understand everything only by reading your manuscript. And I recommend including the hypothesis of your study after the objective.

Line 2-3: Are these efforts just in online settings?

Line 3-4: We do not know this Alcoholic Beverage Control Act B.E. 2551. What is it? A Thailand national law?

Line 18: We do not know this Excise Act B.E. 2560. What is it?

Line 20-23: Is this information important here? (about the types of permits)

Line 24: Which campus?

Line 27-37: I recommend reading again and adjusting the order in which the information appears. I could not understand much of your purpose with this paragraph; it is confusing.

Materials and Methods

I recommend you analyze if you can say your study has a temporal analysis.

Line 44: Your study is an analysis of secondary data, not a secondary analysis.

Line 45-46: Include information about the data of alcohol establishments.

Line 65: You need to make it clear that you collected information on establishments from 2007 to 2018, and that all the years have information. I only understood this in the results.

Reading the methodology, I had a question: was the density of establishments selling alcohol estimated for each province, and to associate it with consumption by teenagers, was this density analyzed by province? Or was it by the area around the houses?

Line 115-117: You must include all the variables analyzed. The readers do not go to table 1 to discover all the variables you include in the analysis.

Results

Figure 1: Include the location in the title of the figure.

Table 2: Include the total number of participants of your study in the title of the table.

Figure 2: Review the figure to see some mistakes, and I recommend writing a note explaining that the scales vary through the categories.

Discussion

Line 235-243: What is your hypothesis as to why these episodes of heavy drinking are more frequent among female adolescents?

Conclusion

Have you only thought about regulating licenses and limiting teenagers' consumption? I recommend a deeper and more advanced analysis of the issue. Wouldn't education actions with teenagers be necessary to raise awareness about alcohol consumption and its harms? Just limiting or prohibiting alcohol is not working, as this is already happening, and the results of your study show that teenagers still consume alcohol. I recommend reviewing the implications and suggestions (and changing the abstract as well).

Reviewer #2: At the beginning of the abstract the authors say: “This study aims to explore the relationship between alcohol outlet density and drinking behaviors among Thai adolescents” and at the end of the introduction they say: “This study examines the relationship between alcohol outlet density and the proportion of alcohol use among Thai teenagers.” Review the end of the introduction and standardize for consumer behavior. In the methodology (line 72) it mentions that they are drinking behaviors, and it is important to change the term “the proportion” at the end of the introduction

The study is confusing in determining a target audience, in the title and objective they mention that they are teenagers, but in the introduction (line 30) they mention young adults. It is important to define the age range of the group studied and standardize the terms

Line 106 -107: As potential confounding variables for each participant, some variables were included that I don't think apply to the lives of adolescents (study participants), such as marital status and monthly income. That's why it's important to make it clear who is being studied. If they are adults (which I don't believe they are) these adjustment variables are relevant. Other interesting adjustment variables for adolescents, for example: age, occurrence of bullying, difficulty interacting with peers, satisfaction with school life, alcohol consumption by someone in the family

Line 115: The confounding variables described can be found in lines 106, 107 and 108.

In the introduction, an approach to the impacts of alcohol consumption on the health of adolescents/young adults would be interesting.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Luana Lara Rocha

Reviewer #2: No

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Alcohol outlet density and adolescent drinking behaviors in Thailand, 2007–2017: A spatiotemporal mixed model analysis

PONE-D-23-42353R1

Dear Dr. Sittisombut,

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,

Larissa Loures Mendes, Ph.D.

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

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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

Reviewer #2: No

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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

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 #1: The manuscript review "Alcohol outlet density and adolescent drinking behaviors in Thailand, 2007–2017: A spatiotemporal mixed model analysis" was carried out in full, and all suggestions and questions were addressed and resolved. I consider that the manuscript can be published.

Reviewer #2: (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: Luana Lara Rocha

Reviewer #2: No

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