Title: Women’s self-care behavior and its relationship with social capital in Yazd, Iran
Version: 1 Date: 09 Apr 2021
Reviewer:  Mohsen Mirzaei
Reviewer's report:
Assessing the relationship between the impact of social capital and self-care variables by social
class (with more emphasis on geographical location) is a good topic that the authors have
addressed.
Background:
i. In the "Background" section, the general role of "social capital" in self-care is discussed, but
its examples are not mentioned in other studies.
ii. The reason for choosing "women" in this study is limited to simultaneous employment at
home and at work. Are "men" have higher social capital and better self-care? There seem to be
more important factors in Iran that make the difference between the social capital of "women"
and "men".
iii. Introducing the socio-cultural conditions of women in the study- population is recommended.
Methods:
i. The classification of women into upper, middle, and marginal groups is not clear. Reference
25 was not found in the Web search to read in the search. It seems that the variables in the
classification of neighborhoods (upper, middle, and marginal) need further explanation. Are the
lower classes not considered or are they the same as the marginal class?
ii. While the first 9 neighborhoods were randomly selected and then classified; Or first classified
neighborhoods and after each group; Study neighborhoods have been selected.
iii. What was the criterion for women including or excluding the study? Were certain age groups
involved in the study? In a selected house in the neighborhood; Were all women included in
the study?
iv. The self-care questionnaire used is a combination of several questionnaires that need to be
published as an appendix with the article.
Results:
i. Despite the emphasis on simultaneous employment of women at home and at work; The results
do not report the employment status of the women studied.
ii. Summary of Social Capital Scale results by study areas is not provided. Social capital is an
important variable in the present study and it is necessary to add it to the tables by three regions
in each area.
iii. In Table 2, is there a statistically significant difference between the regions in terms of the
presented variables? (P-Value to be provided)
iv. The tables show two decimal places for percentages and three decimal places for SD! They
are presented in a format.
Discussion:
i. Since much attention has been paid to the social class variable - depending on the neighborhood
- which can directly affect self-care, it is suggested to discuss the study findings for each
class (upper, middle and marginal) based on the components of social capital and self-care
compared to the findings of others. only they are presented in 4 figures, but the differences in
the components of social capital have not been discussed by the authors.
ii. It seems that not enough attention has been paid to the confounding variables in the study
of this relationship, such as women's employment, the history of the disease and the age of the
participating women, and so on. It is recommended to discuss their impact or to point out this
issue in study limitations.