Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: General and reproductive health outcomes amo ng female greenhouse workers: A 
comparative  study  
 
Version: 0 Date: 05 Mar 2020  
 
Reviewer: Longla Terence Acheliu  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Generally, this is an interesting piece of work that is very crucial in the field of Public Health. 
The manuscript is good but it requires some corrections, e specially the grammar of the write up. 
I propose the following corrections to this work.  
 
ABSTRACT  
 
- The aim of the study is not clear. You should be more specific about what you are doing. Are 
you trying to find out if the health status of greenhouse farme rs is different from non -greenhouse 
farmers or if greenhouse farming has an effect on the health of those practicing it.  
- on line 19, 645 females (with an s) of reproductive age or in the reproductive age group  
- on line 25, Data was analyzed using SPSS s oftware(also mention the version) not by  SPSS 
then go ahead to say what you used each of those tests (Mann Whitny -test U, Chi 2, Fisher) to do 
e.g. used the first test to find out if there is any statistically significant difference between two 
means).  
- line 35 mean corpuscular volume (not valium)  
 
BACKGROUND  
 
- line 46, ......which have ....(not has)  
- line 47, punctuation (commas) is not appropriate here. Consider using colon and semi -colon  
- line54, ....adverse effect on humans (with s)  
- 56,.....pestici de exposure leads (with s).....  
- line 60, ...women who farm (not farmer woman)..  
- line 65, ...chills (not chill shaking)  
- line 66, ....experienced 50 % of abortions (remove were)  
- line 76, ...in the southern parts of Iran (add the between in and southern)  
 
METHODOLOGY  
 
- I think you should clearly list your predictor and outcome variables for clarity  
- line 94, ..blood indices were measured (not conducted)  
- line 98, ...gravidity, n ot number of gravidity  
- line 103, abortion considered as an outbreak of pregnancy? the term outbreak is not appropriate  
- line 104, .... fetal death as death occurring after the 20th week of gestation...so format the 
sentence to this  
- 105, ....Also, a ne wborn delivered before 37 weeks of gestation (not a newborn who born....)  
- line 106, a neonate delivered after (not born after)  
- line120, 151, 159 etc, a sentence can not begin with a number  
- line 125, data was checked for normality using .....(not norm ality of data was analyzed)  
- line 126, non -parametric tests were used for further analysis  (not analyze)  
- line 129, Fishers test was used to find out if there is an association between the variables you 
listed and the outcome variable  
 
RESULTS  
 
- line 1 39, ...the average number of years they worked in the greenhouse (not average years 
working in)  
- line 140, ...greenhouse was (not were)  
- line 141, ...husbands (with an s)  
- line 158,...The number of neonates with a LBW was more in......  
- line 229, our r esults showed (not as our results show)  
- line 232, ...were girls...(with an s and take off the comma after 'that')  
- line 235, format sentence  
- line 246, ....showed that the number of preterm births..... (not preterm birth number)  
- line 247, ....et al. stated (letter s is lower case)  
- line 248,...is prematurity a cause of low birth weight or the other way round?  
- line 276, In summary ....(not in sum)  
 
CONCLUSION  
 
You concluded by saying that the adverse health conditions in greenhouse workers was because  
of the pesticides they used. That could only be one of the factors that can account for it implying 
that there could be others. Hence one of the recommendations could be future research to come 
up with others exposures that are unique to greenhouse farmer s. 
Apart from these corrections, it is a great manuscript.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and wel l described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequa tely 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 manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommende d, please specify what aspects require further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
I am able to assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Not suitable for publication unless extensively edited  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
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 f or patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
6. Do you have any non -financial competing 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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