Reviewer’ s report
Title: Knowledge, attitude, practice, and predictors of female genital mutilation in Degadamot
district, Amhara regional state, Northwest Ethiopia, 2018.
Version: 0Date: 17 Feb 2020
Reviewer: Adewale Ashimi
Reviewer's report:
Examples of points which might be included here and raised as confidential comments to the
editors would be ethical concerns regarding any experiments, concerns regarding an undisclosedconflict of interest or concerns regarding plagiarism or publication ethics.This manuscript addresses an interesting public health issue of FGM/C in Ethiopia and the authorshave made a good attempt at demonstrating the knowledge, attitude and practice concerning FGM/C. However, the manuscript can be improved by paying attention to the following:Generally, the authors need to pay detailed attention to grammar, tenses and spelling. I will like tosuggest that they give the manuscript to someone else for editing. Also the title of the manuscriptis not appealing in view of findings in it. Headings like correlates, determinants, predictors etcmay bring out what is written as "associated factors". The inability of the authors to communicateeffectively has not brought out the best of the manuscript.Specifically,1.Under the Abstract, the background section line 12- 16 needs to be re written. The methodsection, line 21 is not proper. "325 was selected" this should read three hundred and twenty fivewere selected .2.The Background: this is not focused and would possibly benefit from restructuring so that a flow
is established. The literature is full of articles regarding KAP in Ethiopia, what other information
does this manuscript intend to add to extant literature especially in Ethiopia? The authors need tobring out information provided should be relevant to objectives of the study and should not be leftto the readers to decide. The aim and objectives of the study are not clear . The authors need topresent a clear justification and benefit of study under this section. Furthermore, to bring out thebest here, some of information may have to be removed and be replaced with other suitable andrelevant ones.3.4.Materials and Methods: This whole section may benefit from short titles such asSetting/study population, study design, study instrument and data collection, ethical consideration,data analysis. The following statements are unclear-Line 27/28 "s who hadn't under five years old female children, the next"-Line 36/37 " all selected participants were selected"-Line 44/45 concerning ethical consideration-What is the rationale behind using mothers of children less than 5 years as participants for thestudy?-Inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting the participants. It is also good practice to display asummarise the questionnaire along the objectives
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5.Results: This section can also benefit from more short titles and if possible should be structured
along the objectives. It is interesting to note that the response rate was 100% how really possible isthis? Is it because there were no clear inclusion and exclusion criteria?a.What is orthodox religion? See line 54b.It is good practice to give a general description of the participants as "sample description"c.Table I, the variable age (should insert years)d.Classification of level of education as depicted in table II is not standard as education isdescribed as formal or informal and the highest level achieved is recorded.e.Title of Table is not appropriate.
f.What is good knowledge? Line 47
g.The attitude questions in Table 3 are not clear6.Discussion: would also benefit from use of short titles or should be structured so as to avoidrepetition of information as much as possible. For instance, strength and weakness, implicationfor policy makers and healthcare workers. Kindly check out this article : Docherty &Smith.BMJ.1999; 318:1224 - 1225.-It is important for the authors appreciate that male circumcision is not similar to FGM asportrayed in the discussion7. Conclusion: You may wish to review it and it should be in keeping with the objectives8.It is important to mention that some of the abbreviations used are incomplete eg AOR(adjustedodds ratio) , COR (crude odds ratio)References: some of the citations are incomplete and need to be re written or edited . Numbers 14&15
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, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.
YesAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
Unable to assessAre you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an
additional statistical review?If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require furtherassessment in your comments to the editors.
I recommend additional statistical review
Quality of written English
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:
Not suitable for publication unless extensively editedDeclaration of competing interests
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