Title: Perceived ideal number of children among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: does
exposure to family planning messages matter?
Version: 1 Date: 30 Mar 2023
Reviewer:  Josue Mbonigaba
Reviewer's report:
Summary of the study
This study examines the extent to which exposure to family planning communication influences
the desire for a low family-size adolescence age in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study
provides an inquiry into this question by using a pooled weighted sample of 87,950 female
adolescents aged 15-19 years from 28 Sub-Saharan African countries where Demographic and
Health data is available. The study used multivariate logistic regression using binary outcome
with value 0,” small family of 3 or fewer children”, and  1”, big family of more than 3 children”.
The logistic regression controlled for other factors that might influence fertility to observe the
“extent” to which family planning messages affect the desired  number of children ( or family
size)
While the study has the potential for publication and contribution to knowledge, it has several
areas for improvement.
Introduction (background)
The background of the study needs to be stronger.  The previous work in this area needs to be
critically reviewed to highlight the contribution of this study to this literature. Related to this
deficiency is the failure of the researchers to pose questions of practical and policy relevance.
Examining the extent to which family planning communication influences adolescents’ desire
for small family size in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is not a practical policy question. Simply the
study assesses the effect of these messages on the perceived desire for the number of children
among adolescents. The analysis of the extent sends across a message that there is a standard
level that these messages are expected to achieve, and the study is assessing whether that
standard is achieved by family planning messages in these countries have reached this standard.
A proper and relevant policy question would be to assess whether there is a correlation or
an observable pattern across countries for the link between family planning messages and the
perceived desire of children for adolescents in these countries.  The comparative reporting of
the desired number of children in Mali and Lesotho must be more practical and policy-relevant.
It would have been better to characterise countries regarding how they relate to factors affecting
fertility and see the patterns created by the family planning messages. For example, the findings
could be that messages tend to better affect the desired number of children than in countries
with lower incomes.
Methodology
The paper’s methodology is unclear and does not assist the reader in understanding the results
produced in the paper.  The study discusses perceived family size desire but does not specify
whether some of these adolescents already had children. This distinction is important as the
perception of desired children might differ across adolescents with children already versus those
who do not have children. In the discussion section, it becomes clear that the study used both
married and unmarried adolescents, who may suggest that some of these had children. It would
have been important also to report results across these two categories ( perception of married
and unmarried adolescent)
One would expect the paper to focus on questions in the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) that
lead to the participants responding about the perceived number of children they want to have
in the future. The study also needs to explain how it identified those participants in the DHS
who were exposed to family planning messages and those who were not. The methodology's
information needs to be more consistent with the other information in other parts. For example,
the methodology indicates that the study worked with a weighted sample of 87, 884 but the
abstract reports a weighted sample of 87 950, and then in Figure 1, the paper states that it worked
with 87,864. This causes me not to be confident about reported results.