Review for 10.1186/s12876-019-1085-y (2019)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Patient views about the impact of ulcerative colitis and its managemen t with drug 
treatment and surgery: a nested qualitative study within the CONSTRUCT trial  
 
Version: 1 Date: 22 Aug 2019  
 
Reviewer: Wei Zhou  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Referee's comments:  
 
C1. From the part of Results, only 24 participant interviews were planned. The sample size 
might be too small to conclude the patient views. Please explain whether the number of 
patients is enough to draw the conclusion in this study.  
 
C2. Please give some objective evaluation to assess patient views about the impact of UC and 
its management with drug and surgery. For example, the quality of life and side effects of 
drug. With the objective evaluation, we can find more obvious difference between groups.  
 
C3. What's the detailed baseline characteristics of groups received IFX, ciclosporin and 
surgery?  
 
C4. What's the exclusion criteria of this study? Please describe the exclusion criteria in the 
Methods.  
 
C5. What's the definition of ASUC used in this study? What's more, please describe what 
kind of patients with ASUC chose IFX, what kind of patients chose surgery, and what kind of 
patients chose ciclosporin?  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, pleas e specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
I recommend additional statistical review  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following quest ions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, f ees, funding, or 
salary from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financial ly from 
the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation t hat may in any way gain 
or lose \ financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in 
the future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents  relating to the 
content of the manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an 
organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the 
manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial com peting interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have  no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests  
 
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included on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted f or publication, my 
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confidential comments to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
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