Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Women’s empowerment and child growth faltering in Ethiopia: evidence
from the Demographic and Health Survey.
Version: 
0 
Date: 
28 Dec 2020
Reviewer: 
Joseph Abi Jaoude
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for the opportunity to review this manuscript, I have no COI to
disclose. 
The authors present an interesting retrospective analysis of factors associated
with child growth arrest in Ethiopian mothers. The study is really well-written
and presents important data to the readers of BMC Women's Health. 
Few suggestions are include below:
Would remove the term "clearly" and "extremely" from the conclusion… Seems
a bit strong. 
The introduction is way too lengthy. Would shorten to fit in 1 page only. No
need to go into endless details in the introduction. 
Please define EDHS in your text at first mention. 
Any reference that you could add for the DHS in case the readers need more
information? 
In statistical analysis, could the authors define how they chose which variables to
include in their multivariable regression? Also, it may be worth mentioning that
you also ran a univariate analysis. 
Would include commas in numbers with more than 3 digits, for example: 9,998
instead of 9998.
Under table.4, I suggest the authors include in their footnotes what the reference
categories were for each variable. 
I would remove the section "strengths and limitations" and just include the
limitations of the study, and then mention the strengths as part of the conclusion.
Also, I would add to the limitations that the multivariable model may have
missed some variables that could potentially have been relevant. 
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
Yes
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes