Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: SEXUAL INITIATION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG FEMALE YOUTHS 
IN WEST SHOA, AMBO TOWN, ETHIOPIA: A COMMUNITY -BASED CROSS -
SECTIONAL STUDY.  
 
Version: 3 Date: 02 Feb 2018  
 
Reviewer: Dr. Andras  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
I was glad to see that the manuscript improved a lot since the previous vers ion. However, the 
grammar still needs to be improved: capitalisation, placing of commas, sentence structures etc. 
For instance, no comma is needed after "that". Unfortunately, there are still so much minor 
grammatical mistakes in the text that in the curre nt form the manuscript cannot be published. 
Above I will highlight some issues, but I must repeat what I have written before: the whole 
manuscript needs a thorough language check and revision. Please do not limit the changes to 
those places which I list be low. 
P.3. Background: too general, I do not understand from it what is the aim of the present study. A 
sentence should be added with the aim, or if it does not fit the word count, reformulate the 
background part. You mention premature, although the articl e is not dealing with "early" sex 
(please refer back to my comments on the previous version).  
P.3. and further: General lapses, e.g., commas at wrong place (around "nearly half" or at the next 
page, "in general"). The AOR values are still not presented in the standard format.  
P.3. "Result" should be "Results".  
In general: "subjects" is enough ins tead of "study subjects".  
P.4. "Alcohol" should be "alcohol consumption". Instead of "have" it should be "had".  
P.4. instead of "life skill", it should be "life skills".  
P.4. The name of the organization is World Health Organisation (with capitals and s ) 
P.7. Instead of "until they got eligible girl youths" you should rather say "until they found an 
eligible subject".  
P.7. You write "The instrument was first prepared in English, translated to Amharic and back to 
English again." I assume the backtransla tion was compared to the original, is that correct? You 
should add a sentence on it.  
P.7. You write "nine data collectors were assigned". Who were these persons, how were they 
selected?  
P.10. The sentence on the top needs to be reformulated.  
P.9. Instea d of "More than half of the study subjects were found in age group" it should be "More 
than half of the subjects (53.5%) were in the age group of 15 -19 years".  
P.9. "Majority of the study respondents were Oromo in ethnicity (66.5%), 321 (50.6%) of them 
were Orthodox Christian followers and singles in marital status (82.4%)." These should be three 
separate sentences. If you start a sentence with a number, it must be written in letters.  
P.9. I still not understand how pocket money comes to the picture? What  does that indicate? Why 
is it important? You should mention it in the introductory part and give an explanation on why it 
will be featured later on.  
P.10. "Sexual involvements" does not make sense. It should be singular.  
P.10. at the bottom of the page,  the "were ever" formula (repeated) does not make sense.  
P.11. "Factors related with sexual initiation" should either be "associated with" or "related to".  
P. 11. "co -founders" should be "confounding factors"  
P.12. "According to Social -psychological theories of health behavior, adolescents' sexual 
behaviors are influenced by the sexual attitudes and behaviors of their friends. As different 
studies demonstrated, adolescents who are highly involved with their fri ends may find 
themselves in social contexts that encourage early dating and entry into  romantic relationships, 
which have been linked to earlier sexual initiation." These statements need to be supported by 
references.  
P.13. Instead of "becoming more famil iar" please use "becoming more frequent".  
P.16. Instead of "involved" please put "was involved".  
All references need to be carefully checked and revised. (Multiple spaces, inconsistent 
capitalisation, lack of end page numbers etc.)  
Table 2: "Issues moti vated to begun first sex by respondents" does not make sense and is not 
correct grammatically. Instead of "Feel Matured" there should be "feeling mature".  
Again: this is not a complete list of all grammatical and language lapses!  
  
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.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
Are the conc lusions 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 manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, 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, fees, funding, or salary from an  
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this  
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose  
financially from the publ ication 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 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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