Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Quality of life, its factors, and sociodemographic characteristics of Polish women with lipedema
Version: 
0 
Date: 
23 Oct 2020
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript titled: "Quality of life and sociodemographic
characteristics of Polish women with lipedema". It is potentially the first study to capture quality of life
and sociodemographic data of women with lipema in Poland and as such, may being to pave the way for
gaining a better understanding of the condition and management and supports that are needed. Although
results are based on self-reported cross-sectional data, which the authors acknowledge as a limitation. I am
also wondering why body image and weight stigma measures where not included in this study given the
acknoweledgement of psychological impacts on overall health and recongition that psychological health
could compromise women's efforts to engage in self-management behaviours. 
Overall the manuscripts reads well, however, there are some areas that could be strenthtened before its
suitability for publication can be determined:
Rationale for the current study is based on the fact the sociodemographic, quality of life and clinical
characteristics of Polish women with lipedema has not been previously scientifically described. This could
be strethened by stating why this is important and what the research knowledge could help to progress. 
Methods: Much of the informaiton relating to the types of questionnaires used and scoring characteristics
have been presented in the results section instead of the methods. I would suggest presenting this type of
information in the methods only. It would also be helpful to provide some exxamples of the types of
questions asked in each of the questionnaires and how they were scored (as has been described for some of
the measures). 
Regarding participant response rate - how many members does the online support group have and
therefore what response rate does 130 equate to? 
Please describe the meaure used 
to capture economic status and other demographics. There is not enough
information here in order to allow replication. 
Results: as per comment above, here it would be more appropriate to only present results and include
descriptions of measures used in the methods section. 
Discussion 
Page 11, line 44: Regarding the sentence: It is important to emphasize that lipedema affects women in
Poland and has been diagnosed even with little general knowledge of the condition" - diagnosed by who?
Has clinicians' knowledge of lipedema in Poland been measured? If so, please include a citation. If not,
please reconsider how this statement could be worded. 
Is it possible to identify who (medical specialty; vascular or other?) diagnosed the women in the current
sample? 
Page 14, lines 27-30 where it states: "beyond the reasons mentioned in the international studies" it woud
be helpful to provide some examples of what these reasons are. 
Page 14, line 37-40 Based on general healthy lifestyle exercise guidelines it is not clear how 1 hour of
exercise per week can be described as "quite active". This sounds extremely sedentary. Please clarify or
consider rewording this. 
Could another reason for women not engaging in aquatic exercise be that some of the women are aware of
its benefits? 
Some careful proofing is needed to capture extra full stops or where space needed after a full stop etc. 
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Declaration of competing interests
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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,
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applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use of appropriate controls),
and are the conclusions supported by the evidence presented?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
No
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free from apparent
manipulation?
Yes