Title: Abnormal uterine bleeding and its associated factors among reproductive-age women who
visit the gynecology ward in Dilla University General Hospital, Southern Ethiopia, 2022
Version: 1 Date: 06 Mar 2023
Reviewer's report:
Manuscript title: Magnitude of abnormal uterine bleeding and its associated factors among
reproductive age women who visit gynecology ward in Dilla University General Hospital,
Southern Ethiopia, 2022
Comments:
1) General comments:
• The manuscript is full of grammatical, spelling, sentence formulating, and formatting errors.
2) Abstract section
• Rename the introduction to background
• The last sentences in the introduction are fragmented sentences.
• The conclusion is a redundancy of the result, not a conclusion.
3) Introduction
• There are inconsistencies in the figures of the AUB in different contexts. For example, the
overall prevalence of AUB ranges from 10-30% Vs. above 30% prevalence reports Vs. from
5-15% in developing countries.
• The introduction generally lacks synthesis and summary.
• What is the contribution of this study to the field specifically?
• Use specific terminologies such as prevalence vs. magnitude.
4) Methods
• The population of your study seems unclear; clearly specify them.
• What other specific exclusion criteria have been used among the reproductive-age women
other than illness?
• The sample size is small in relation to the number of variables you have and the method of
analysis you used.
• The coherence of the sampling procedures is not clear.
• Where was the study conducted? in the ward or OPD? Make it clear and consistent.
• How was the AUB measured? Any operational definition for this study?
• Where was the pre-test conducted and why?
• Why were the collected data uploaded weekly? Why not daily?
• What statistical procedures have you performed to check the model adequacy, fitness,
collinearity, etc?
5) Results
• Re-write the results section in a coherent and concise way.
• Lines 141-149:
# The number (%) of women with no history of abortion is inconsistent.
# Be coherent in saying contraceptive usage Vs. hormonal contraceptive usage.
# Is it appropriate to include nulliparous women in the history of abortion question? Pls, check.
# Line 144: the sentence is misleading.
• Line 151-152: repetition
• Why did you include the mentioned lifestyle behavior factors only?
• Check the 95% CI of the magnitude of AUB?
• Describe the types of AUB.
• Figure 1 is not visible if printed, use a simple chart.
• Which of your variables were taken to the multivariable model considering the criteria
significant associations in previous studies and biological plausibility?
• Why is the p-value of o.16 bold in table 4, for instance?
6) Discussion:
• The discussion is very shallow and looks simple summary. You need to provide scientific and
plausible justifications, if possible, with references for the main findings.
7) Conclusions
• Put the interpretations and implications of your main findings than duplicating the results.
8) Abbreviations and Declaration
• STI?
• All authors, the authors, approved by the author……Vs. a sole author.
9) References
• The references are not appropriately formatted according to the Vancouver reference style (as
per the journal`s guidelines)