Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Risk and Protective Factors Associated Mental Health among Female
Military Veterans: Results from the Veterans’ Health Study
Version: 
1 
Date: 
17 Sep 2020
Reviewer's report:
The authors were very responsive to the first round of critiques and the paper is
stronger as a result. I have just a few suggestions for further refinement.
1. The description of service receipt needs to be fleshed out better so that it is
clear what specific types of care were queried and whether there was some
attempt at quantifying the amount of care or if each type was rated as "yes" or
"no." 
a. If care receipt was rated yes/no, the authors need to go back through the paper
and frame receipt of care in terms of rate or proportion having received care
rather than using terms like "greater users" or "higher service use." 
b. If on the other hand, each type of care receipt was somehow rated along a
continuum, better characterization of the quantity of care received would be
appreciated.
2. The new text on pg. 12, line 48 is awkwardly constructed.
3. The text reference to the Lehavot NESARC-III study should omit "on alcohol"
as the survey did not over sample for alcohol use or AUD and while there were a
lot of questions about alcohol, including that phrasing could lead to confusion
about the sample.
4. There are a couple of awkward, self-conscious statements (e.g., pg. 13, line
44; "We make a final comment on….") that need to be amended.
5. Pg. 15, line 23; I'm unclear what the authors mean by "gender-informed
planning" and suggest that they make a more concrete statement about
establishing gender-informed treatment offerings.
6. In this same paragraph (lines 32-35), the sentence beginning "Our findings…"
needs to be amended so that both VA and non-VA treatment settings are
included because both really need to take the key gender differences identified in
this study and in other studies into account in shaping their treatment for women
veterans.
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
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