Reviewer’ s report
Title: Spatial Distribution and Determinants of Early Marriage among Married Women in
Ethiopian: A spatial and Multilevel Analysis
Version: 0Date: 13 May 2020
Reviewer: Sunil Mehra
Reviewer's report:
Major changes suggested:The rationale for including both individual and community level variables into the model should
be explained and how this will address the existing research gap.Why Oromia region was selected as index/reference cluster needs for the logistic regressionanalysis to be explained.Line 133-135- Variables in the method section need to be defined in more detail like how mediaexposure, wealth index, decision making on power of first marriage etc. are categorisedAdditionally, the heading could be Variables and subheadings could be outcome variable, socio-demographic variables and community level variablesNeed to discuss if there were any biases in the study and how were they addressedAlso, it can be added that the limitation of this study is the cross-sectional nature of the studydesign which may affect causality.Language editing is required.
Other changes suggested:
AbstractLine 15- Though early marriage 'is a global problem', it is mainly….Line 21- 11,646 'women in the' reproductive age were included.Line 23- Multilevel logistic regression model was used—delete binary Line 28- Spatial is repeatedtwice in the sentence you can start with- 'The analysis indicated… Line 29- which 'were' located
Line 34- Instead of 'of' use 'Among' the community level… Line 41- it should be 'marriages' in
Ethiopia.Instead of 'at' it should be 'through' education of women…
Background
Line 53-insert 'a' after stillLine 56: insert 'marriage' after childLine 60- Not niger it should be 'Nigeria'Line 70-Line 92- It is again a continuous text plz break texts in paragraphs. Every para shouldhave a message it is trying to convey. No reader enjoys such a long narratives.Line 77: insert 'their' after marryLine 82: insert 'of' after status
Line 84- knowledge of 'ideal' ….instead of ideal I think it should be 'legal'
Line 85: Please rephrase 'Orthodox Know someone….' As the sentence is not clear.
Line 86- Small 'e' in 'ending'Line 89- essential 'for' understanding. Replace 'understand' in place of 'understanding'
Method
Line 95: 'We used data from…' in place of 'We used to…'Line 108- There is no need to give the link to the DHS survey in the text it can go as a referencebelow.Line 109: 'two-staged'
Line 118: 'aged'
Line 126- The source population was all reproductive age group women (15-49 years) in Ethiopia.(This line can be deleted as the next line explains it in detail)Line 130- 131 The dependent variable for this study was early marriage, which is dichotomized asnormal (>18 years) and early marriage (<18 years). This line can also be deleted as it is repetitive.Has been stated before in Line 124-125Line 133- Education level 'of' husbandLine 152: 'The data was checked…'Line 171- was used for 'the analysis.
Results
Line 192: insert 'from' after wereLine 194: Please rephrase the sentence 'Most of 7,070(60.70%) respondent's marriage isdetermined by their parents.' And use past tense Line 194- marriage 'was' determined not is Line197- 'were' included in the..Line 198: remove 'comma'Line 199- across Ethopia…delete 'the' Ethopia Line 203- where 'we found' the lowest early'marriages'
Line 203: replace 'where the' with 'had'
Line 205-207: The sentence 'The red colors indicated that significant hotspot areas (higher rates ofearly marriage), which were found in the Amhara, Afar, Southwestern and southern Tigray.' Canbe replaced with 'The red color indicates significant hotspot areas (higher rates of early marriage)in Amhara….'Line 218- Geostatistical analysis, 'predicts' that highest early 'marriages were' detected in almostall parts of Amhara..Line 223 Title should be 'Determining factors….Line 226 results 'have been' presented in Table 2 Line 228: remove 'factors'Line 244-247 not women's it should be women at all the four places in these sentences Line 248:remove 'times'Line 259-262- Needs to rephrased the meaning is not clear- This showed that if we randomlyselect women from different clusters women at the cluster with high early marriage had 1.96 timeshigher odds of experiencing early marriage as compared with women at cluster with low earlymarriage.
Discussion
Line 274-76 Identifying risk areas may be minimize cost of 'the' interventions to implement and
studies have shown that community-level interventions bring about reduction in health problem…
What are you trying to say from this line in the flow is not clear and 'reduction in health problem'
is too general a term to use you need to be more specific.Line 298- 300 …..and it is true that education makes the women to actively involved in different
knowledge enhancement activities like reading materials, service promotions, and peerdiscussions.. delete these lines or explain it better!! Education of women does far more thanthat!!!!Line 300: reference is requiredLine 301: insert 'is' in place of 'was'Line 302: insert 'respectively' after higher and remove from the end of the sentence Line 303- in
Ethiopia 'which' showed..
Line 305- due to parents' who' feel..Line 310- instead of 'letting them decide'….Again whole discussion section there is no paragraph formation anywhere!!!Line 316- as well as 'disparities'…
Strength and limitationsLine 320: replace first 'was' with 'is'
Line 321- Delete "also'Line 325- Parents small p. Replace 'was' with 'is'Line 326- same comment as above not 'ideal' write 'legal' ideal is a very relative term
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
No
Does the work include the necessary controls?
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.
YesAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
YesAre 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 furtherassessment 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:
Needs some language corrections before being publishedDeclaration of competing interests
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