Reviewer's report
Title:The increased trend in mother's hospital admissions for psychiatric
disorders in the first year after birth between 2001 and 2010 in New South
Wales, Australia
Version:1Date:10 June 2014
Reviewer: Qun Mai
Reviewer's report:
This large population-based study described the trend of mother’s hospital
admission rate of psychiatric disorders in the first year after birth in 2001-2010 in
the State of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia using linked NSW Midwives
and Admitted Patients Data Collection data. The objectives are clearly defined.
The strength of the study is the use of large population-based linked data. The
topic is important for better understanding the extent and change of mother’s
postpartum mental disorders that require hospitalisation and providing evidence
for developing strategies for interventions as well as improving mental health
services for this specific population. Despite these, I think the manuscript seems
a bit thin as it is and might be further improved if the authors could address the
following comments.
Major Essential Revisions
1. Given mental illness is often attribute to social illness and the richness of the
data, including socio-demographic (such as race, maternal age, socio-economic
status, residential remoteness) and clinical factors (such as whether or not
having any complications/difficulties before, during or after birth in mother and/or
baby, whether or not having any pre-existing mental disorders) as the co-variants
in the regression analysis would help us to better understand the reasons for this
increased trend.
Minor Essential Revisions
2. The logistic regression has used mother-level data, that is, one-person one
record. For better comparison, it might be worthwhile to add two columns of
figures in mothers next to hospital admissions in Table 1.
3. Other comments:
Line 44: ‘mental and behavioural disease (MBD)’ - the most commonly used term
for this is ‘mental and behavioural disorders’
The Methods and the Results sections should be in the past tense.
Line 71: ‘This is a population-based descriptive study’ –should be ‘This was a
population-based descriptive study’. Similar for the lines 76-95.
Line 74: ‘31 December 20011’ – should be ‘2011’
Line 86: ‘Non-principal diagnosis includes’ – should be ‘Non-principal diagnoses
included’
Line 87: ‘include one principal diagnoses, one stay diagnoses’ – should be
‘included one principal diagnosis, one stay diagnosis’
Line 92: ‘All diagnosis including principal diagnosis and non-principal diagnosis. –
should be ‘All diagnoses included the principal diagnosis and all non-principal
diagnoses.’
Line 93: ‘Psychiatric disorders postpartum refers to’ – should be ‘Psychiatric
disorders postpartum referred to’
Line 98: ‘All diagnosis includes the diagnoses of F00–99 exclude substance use
disorders (F10-19).’ – should be ‘and (5) all diagnoses, including the diagnoses
of F00–99 and excluding substance use disorders (F10-19).’
Line 203: ‘relative policy changes’ - should be ‘relevant policy changes’
Line 297: ‘Principal diagnoses’ – should be ‘Principal diagnosis’
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
No competing interests to declare.