Title: Comprehensive knowledge of mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission, prevention,
and associated factors among reproductive-age women in East Africa: insights from recent
demographic and national health surveys
Version: 0 Date: 14 Dec 2023
Reviewer's report:
Review Comments
Thank you for the opportunity to review this important manuscript. Findings from this study
will potentially influence policy frameworks and practice. However, authors should address all
the issues raised in this document before being considered appropriate for publication.
Abstract
1. I commend the authors for writing a clear and easy to understand abstract.
2. Authors should consider using a better word or expression than “preferable” in the conclusion.
This should also be reflected in the conclusion in the main text or manuscript.
Introduction
1. Since you have defined Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the first instance it appears,
there is no need to write Human Immunodeficiency Virus subsequently. Do same for the rest of
the words that need to be defined in the first instance they appear to eliminate redundancy.
2. Please provide appropriate source(s) for the statement “In 2022, there will be around 39
million HIV-positive people worldwide.”
3. I feel this statement is not complete “There were 37.5 million adults and 1.5 million children
(15 and under).” And readers may not understand the statement as it stands.
4. You presented all these statistics without sources “In terms of women and girls in 2022,
women and girls of all ages accounted for 46% of all new HIV infections worldwide. Women
and girls (of all ages) accounted for 63% of all new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa. In all
other geographical regions, men and boys accounted for more than 70% of new HIV infections
in 2022. In 2022, 4000 adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 years would be infected
with HIV per week over the world.” Kindly do the needful.
5. Please, address the typographical error in the statement “Furthermore, to the best of our
knowledge, there is no new information on this topic utilizing nationally representative data
(from recent DHS surveys) at the east Africa size.”
6. What theoretical model underpins the study? It will be helpful for readers to appreciate the
theoretical basis of the study.
7. What is the significance of the study? Please, do not hide the significance of the study to
readers.
Methods
1. These statements are confusing “During the study period, DHS was conducted in 10 countries
(Table 1). However, for our research, we added DHS data from 10 nations.” Kindly, restate the
statements for clarity.
2. Please, address the typographical error in “To summarize the descriptive data, descriptive
studies such as frequency count and proportion for categorical data were used.”
Results
1. Consider deleting “About” from the statement “About nearly half of them 53,712 (40.17%)
of the study women were found from 15-24 years of reproductive age.”
2. Please, address the typographical, grammatical and punctuation errors in the statement
“Similarly, about 67,551 (50.52%), and 79,879 (59.73%) of women did not have at least one
mass media exposure (either, listening to radio, watching to television or reading to magazines/
newspapers), and employed respectively.” Put a comma after “employed”. That is, ………..
employed, respectively.
3. Please, address the typographical, grammatical and punctuation errors in the statement
“However, more than half 88,376(66.09%), and 51,509(38.52%) of mothers did not utilize any
method types of contraceptive, and they reported as distance to the health facility is a major
problem.”
4. Please, address the typographical, grammatical and punctuation errors in the statement
“Furthermore, about 107,992 (80.76%), and 93,094 (69.62%) participants had only one health
facility visit per a year and male household heads respectively (Table 2).” Put a comma after
“heads”. That is, ………..heads, respectively.
5. Introduce the Table in the paragraph that mentions the name of the table. For example, Table
1 shows the results on ……………………………….
6. I detected several typographical and grammatical errors in the results section. Please, make
sure to address them. Such errors make it difficult to grasp the understanding of the manuscript.
Again, make sure to address the wrongly interpreted results. For example, you wrote that “The
odds of being knowledgeable about PMTCT of HIV was increased by 21%, and 13% more times
(AOR=1.21, 95% CI, 1.17,1.25), and (AOR=1.13, 95% CI, 1.09,1.16) among women whose age
is from 24-34 years, and from 35-49 years old as compared to women whose age found from
15-24 years old respectively.”
Discussion
1. It will be beneficial to readers if authors can discuss the findings in terms of the theoretical
underpinnings suggested in the introduction.
2. Consider adding up on the possible reasons for the findings in this study with appropriate
sources. This will be interesting to readers.
General Comments
1. Please, go over the document and address all typographical and grammatical errors in
the manuscript. Make sure punctuation marks have been used appropriately throughout the
document. Pay attention to issues such as “……………….ANC follow-ups during their
pregnancies, respectively.” In the manuscript, the “comma” is missing.
2. Address all the comments raised in this document as best as you can.