Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Choices and services related to contraception in the Gaza S trip, Palestine: Perceptions of 
service users and providers  
 
Version: 0 Date: 22 Sep 2019  
 
Reviewer: Vincent Bamigboye  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
SUGGESTED CHANGES IN AREAS HIGHLIGHTED  
Page 3: - Conflicting figures of contraceptive usages in Gaza Strip and Palestine.  
 
Strike off 'and'.  
 
Rephrase - suggestion - 'Worldwide varying obstacles were identified that can hinder women 
from benefitting from reliable contraception. These include ………………..'  
 
Critique: mixing Qualitative and Quantitative methods pose a lot of challenges. The inclusion 
and the exclusion criteria have to be clear.  
 
 "transcribe d into verbatim" - Remove 'into'  
 
Page 4  
              Critique: p value ≤0.05 regarded as significant. What's the POWER of the study to be 
able to detect this? How many samples are required to detect the changes? Is this sample size 
good enough to justify  this statement? Remember that POWER relates to SAMPLING!  
 
Under 'Socio -demographic characteristics of study participants' - use commas and semi -colons  
               
Govern't clinics - such abbreviation is not appropriate. Use Government Clinics  
   
Page 5              
'they felt that the Staff were supportive'  
 
Page 6:  
'Healthcare professionals found that re -educating …………………'  
 
'There were so many wrong information in the Community about Family Planning.' This is too 
broad a statement. Please revise this.  
 
"It was hard to change their attitude. Let's say not to change them, but let's say to correct them 
and change or correct some behaviours. Always changing behaviour is difficult."  
Suggestion: 'It is hard to change their attitude. Changing a long -held belie ve is difficult. 
However, with time and the right approach, we may be able to correct some of the behaviours.'  
Page 7  
"FP providers reported a major challenge to the provision of reliable contraception to be the 
periods of unavailability of chosen methods, which requires women to change methods, 
increasing the risk of unintended pregnancies [15]." Statement is too long as  to lose its meaning.  
 
There are too many repeats about misconceptions e g cancer, infertility etc.  
 
 
 
Are the methods 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 y our 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 stat istical review?  
If an additional statistical 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, f ees, funding, or salary from an 
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financial ly 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 publication 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 r elation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have  no competing interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
No 
 
I agree to the open peer revie w policy of the journal. I understan d that my name will be included 
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I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal