Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title:  Stress, health and quality of life of female migrant dom estic workers in Singapore: A 
cross -sectional study  
 
Version: 1 Date: 21 Apr 2017 
 
Reviewer:  CARLOS  SIQUEIRA  
 
Reviewer’s report:  
 
This article is important because it provides new data on worker conditions of domestic workers, 
a group that is exploited all over the world. They add more evidence about such exploitation by 
documenting their situation in Singapore. The article needs significant changes before 
publication, including the naming of these female domestic workers as foreign instead of 
immigrant domestic workers. I have the following suggestions for the authors to improve it:  
 
1) The title is too long as is. I suggest to change it to "The impact of job stressors on the quality 
of life and health of female immigrant domestic workers in Singapore." In addition, to call the 
domestic workers in Singapore as foreign instead of immigr ant is a choice that may separate this 
study from the larger body of literature that discusses domestic workers as immigrants.Is there a 
reason to call them foreign instead of immigrants? Aren't they economic migrants, as many 
others all over the world?  
 
2) The abstract should include a short description of the statistical analyses conducted in the 
methods section of it.  
 
3)The abstract results do not read well. I suggest to rewrite it by including the sentence on page 
10, line 30 in the results section. The new sentence reads "... age was found to be significantly 
(p<0.05) associated with overall quality of life and three domains (psychological, social, and 
environmental health."  
 
4) Provide source(s) for the information described in page 4, lines 20 -35. 
 
5)Page 5 - lines 8 -10- Karasek's demand -control model always included the social support 
dimension. The book listed as reference 18 discusses the three dimensions of his model in detail.  
 
6)The specific objectives listed in page 6, lines 18 -35 should be moved to  the methods section.  
 
7) The Methods section has to be reorganized according to the itemization suggested in the 
journal's website. The sections should be: Design&Aims&Setting; Participants& Materials; Data 
Collection (instead of procedure); and Statistica l Analysis.  
 
8) The first paragraph on page 8 should be moved to the end of the methods section.  
 
9) The first paragraph of the section results should be moved to the data collection sub -section of 
methods section.  
 
10)There is no need to show percentiles in table 2. Mean, standard deviation and percentages are 
enough.  
 
11)The discussion section repeats too many results (e.g, the first three paragraphs in the results 
section, page 12 -13)and does not discuss enough the findings based on literature that either 
supports or contradicts them. The study found that age and work experience are important factors 
to explain better quality of life of FDWs in Singapore. Are those findings new or not? Are there 
other studies of dome stic workers that confirm or reject the associations found?  
 
12)The paragraph that starts on p. 12, line 79 should be rewritten, as follows: "Older workers and 
those with more work experience are likely to have better social support. Very socially 
connected  women showed the highest quality of life scores...." On the other hand, feeling 
stressed.....  
 
13) The first paragraph of a new section titled conclusion should be the one that is now between 
lines 17 -32 of page 14. The new section should start on line 15 of page 15. The paragraph that is 
on page 15, line 15 should become the second paragraph of the section conclusion.  
 
14)The sentence in lines 33 -35, p.15, should be removed because it is repetitive. It starts with In 
conclusion...""  
 
15) The citations do n ot follow the journal's author instructions either. They need to be 
reformatted.  
 
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 comm ents to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
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 indi cate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Needs some language corrections before being published  
 
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 m ay 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, fund ing, 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 financial or other competing interests in relatio n to this paper.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journ al. 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 m y 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