Title: Muslim Women’s Views and Experiences of Family Planning in Saudi Arabia: A
Qualitative Study
Version: 2 Date: 12 Jul 2023
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to review this qualitative study. This is an important
topic taking into consideration the religious and cultural background of the participants/
respondents. However, the findings of this study are limited to the local community.
Title: The Title reads as if the study was conducted in the whole of Saudi Arabia using a
nationally representative dataset. But this was not the case. I therefore suggest the title should be
changed from “Muslim Women’s Views and Experiences of Family Planning in Saudi Arabia:
A Qualitative Study" to something as ‘Muslim Women’s Awareness, Barriers, attitudes and
Experiences towards Family Planning in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study at a…….”
Abstract:
Background: What is the knowledge gap?
Methodology: Setting is missing.
Results:  Please rephrase the following statement in the result section:
Women said that healthcare providers rarely offer contraceptive advice, even when asked. You
may write “findings show that healthcare providers rarely offered contraceptive advice, even
when requested”.
Conclusion: A sentence that declares the results. The recommendation/inferences or
speculations can be after the findings.
Keywords: You can also add perceptions and attitudes, Islam and contraception, culture
Introduction:
Could you please add a brief review of the literature from the social ecological perspective?
Methods:
Under the study design, could you provide a rationale for using a qualitative approach?
Under sampling and recruitment, provide clear accounts of the rationale/justification for the
sampling.
Inclusion/exclusion criteria
Ethical permission: Write full form of UCL for the first time rather than an abbreviation.
Kindly mention the name of the Institutional Review Board for the study for the hosting hospital.
How were the participants approached? Could you describe how the research was explained and
presented to the participants?
Data collection:
Explain the personal characteristics of the interviewer like credentials. Occupation, what
experience or training did the researcher have? experience in the field.
Has the relationship between the researcher and the participants been adequately considered?
Please include additional information regarding the topic guide used in the study and ensure that
you have provided sufficient details that others could replicate the analyses.
Were field notes taken? Were the notes made during and/or after the interview. Was it used for
contextual details for data analysis and interpretation.
Interview guide: Were questions, prompts provided by the authors? Was it pilot tested?
It is mentioned under data analysis that all transcripts were checked against the recordings to
ensure accuracy of the transcripts. Who did it?
Interviews were conducted in Arabic and a sample was translated to English for non-Arabic
speaking researchers to contribute to the analysis. Why was only a sample translated? How
could they contribute if it was not translated completely?  Method of coding is not clear. Kindly,
elaborate on this.
Clarify how the themes and concepts were derived from the data. How were the differences
resolved? Were negative/discrepant results addressed or ignored?
Results:
It is advised to write the content of the theme as a paragraph and all the extracts from the original
data should only be added as patient’s opinions. The questions asked can be written as text, if
needed. Kindly check all such extracts and correct them accordingly.
Page #11:
“P19: I would usually ask my friends, and the internet as a second option.
NA: What about talking to a doctor?
P19: Umm I don’t know. I feel like I trust people around me with personal experience with
contraception. I feel like I trust and value their opinion more than doctors.” (P19, Married, 38
years old)
Discussion:
In the discussion it is claimed that the research showed opposing findings from previous studies
in Saudi Arabia, where religion did not seem to act as a barrier to Saudi women’s contraceptive
use. However, a previous study by Karim SI, Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes
and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women. Pak J Med Sci. 2015 Nov-Dec; showed that religious
belief was not perceived as an important factor as a barrier. Kindly restate the opposing findings
to similar findings and add the references for Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries that
showed similar findings e.g. Pakistan.
Suggestion for literature: You can add some literature by Karim SI on knowledge of emergency
contraception among patients and physicians.
You may add a statement as a recommendation for further multicenter studies using a mixed
methodology to make the results generalizable.
Language editing/proof reading is needed.