Reviewer’s report
Title:  Self-reported  depression  and  social  support  are  associated  with  egocentric  network
characteristics of HIV-infected women of color
Version: 0 Date: 14 Feb 2019
Reviewer: Liying Zhang
Reviewer's report:
Manuscript ID: BMWH-D-18-00722
Title: Self-reported depression and social support are associated with egocentric network characteristics
of HIV-infected women of color
Comments to authors
This is a cross-sectional clinical study conducted in 87 HIV-positive women of color (WOC) in a clinic.
This study has analyzed the characteristics of the social network and it's associations with depressive
symptoms and social support. The study is very interesting and I would suggest that this manuscript
needs a minor revision to be published.
Some comments are listed below:
Page 2 lines 29-30: Please rewrite the conclusion here. Please address your conclusion directly based
on your results. 
Page 4 line 17: Please clarify the words "included women".
Page 4 lines 38-43: Please provide the reference for women living with HIV if it is available. 
Page 4 line 53: Please change to "Knowlton et al. (2005)".
Page 5 lines 19-24: It could be better if literature review focus on women living with HIV, particularly
African American.    
Page 5 line 24: Please change to "Wohl et al.'s work (2011) suggested that".
Page 6 line 46: Please change to "older; and".
Page 7 lines 46-48: Please rewrite this sentence: "Last we asked respondents to indicate if they thought
all, most, only a few, or none of the named people knew each other". 
Page 16 line 16: In the limitation part, authors may need to discuss about the sample size; whether it is
large enough to detect the associations with strong enough power.  
Page 16 line 36: Authors mentioned that "In addition, this analysis was hampered by a lack of detailed
adherence data". Therefore, authors need to rewrite the conclusion in abstract section.
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 your comments to the authors.
Unable to assess
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 manuscript or would you recommend an additional
statistical review?
If  an  additional  statistical  review  is  recommended,  please  specify  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:
Acceptable
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, fees, funding, or salary from an
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this
manuscript, either now or in the future?
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that 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 relation 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.
I declare that I have no competing interests.
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