Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Domestic and intimate partner  violence among pregnant women in a low resource setting 
in South Africa: a facility -based, mixed methods study  
 
Version: 1 Date: 05 Dec 2017  
 
Reviewer: Touran Shafiei  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
This is an important topic and the study has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the 
literature. There are few items which require m ore information and/ or further work before being 
appropriate for publication.  
 
Abstract: please add 'the revised CTS2 was used to assess violence'.  
 
Participants and procedures - please add more details about recruitment of participants. How 
many women usu ally attend the clinic per day? How were women approached/ invited to the 
study? By whom? How many were invited and how many declined and their reasons? Women 
with experience of IPV or mental health problem were probably more likely to decline to 
participa te. This should be mentioned in the discussion. Were women included/invited if their 
partner or a family member accompanied them?  
 
Line 6; please explain 'A k=3 sampling frame'.  
Please add information about sample size calculation. Some numbers in the Tab le 3 are very 
small and I am wondering if the study has power to conclude some of the findings.  
 
Results: line 11 to 16; some of the figures do not seem accurate and do not match with the 
percentage in table 1; eg line 11 '25% were experiencing their first pregnancy'; or '58% were 
unemployed'; 58% of those who had experienced violence were unemployed not all participants.  
I would suggest making Table 1 as participants' characteristics; adding a column for total number 
of participants and also add numbers in addition to percentages for each item.  
Table 2 shows both bivariate and multivariate analysis;  please correct the title of table 2 or 
present bivariate analysis in a separate table.  
Are the methods appropriate and well describe d? 
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 ade quately 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 recomme nded, 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 inter ests 
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 o r 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 t o any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understand that my name will be included  
on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted for publication,  my named report  
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors'  
responses.  I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons 
CC-BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understand that any comments 
which I do  not wish to be included in my named report can be included as confidential comments 
to the  editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal