Revie wer’s report  
 
Title: Helping Women Veterans Quit Smoking: A Qualitative Analysis of Successful and  
Unsuccessful Attempts  
 
Version: 0 Date: 31 Jul 2019  
 
Reviewer: Lori A. Bastian  
 
Reviewer's report:  
Overall this is a good manuscript that describes 14 qualitative interviews with women who had 
made a quit attempt.  
The information is important but there are a few issues to address:  
 
1) The title needs to be more clear. I would rec ommend using successful or unsuccessful quit 
attempts in the title. This seems to be the main point of the paper.  
 
2) Were all women veterans receiving care at the VA when they made their quit attempt?  
 
3) Abstract needs more clarity. Conclusions of the a bstract should be directly related to the 
results.  
 
4) Introduction needs to point out most of their work showing veterans struggle with mental 
health disorders is among women veterans receiving care of the VA.  
 
5) Note that the reference reporting that women veterans are less likely to receive medications 
for smoking cessation is from 2005. Care in the VA has changed a lot since that time.  
 
6) Why were women enrolled and the tobacco cessation clinic excluded?  
 
7) The theme of health and well -being is large and I wondered if it should be broken into two 
different themes one about well -being and one about physical and mental illness.  
 
8) What were some of the triggers to smoke that women described?  
 
9) I was confus ed about the last sentence of the second paragraph. What is meant by critical 
baseline theme?  
 
 
Are the met hods 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.  
 
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 s tatistical review is recommended, please speci fy 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:  
 
Needs some language corrections before being published  
 
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 sal ary 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 t hat may in any way gain or lose 
financially from the publica tion 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 dec lare that I have  no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I hav e no competing interests  
 
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I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal