Reviewer’s report  
 
Title: Supporting women of childbearing age in the prevention and treatment of overweight and 
obesity: A scoping review of randomized control trials of behavioral interventions  
 
Version: 2 Date: 07 Oct 2019  
 
Reviewer: Fei Xu  
 
Reviewer's report:  
1. Authors mentioned that all sources were searched up until the 31st January 2018 in 
METHOD section. However, the exact published period of articles that were searched should be 
presented in the section of METHOD.  
 
2. Autho rs addressed that the aims of this article was to examine the extent and range of 
research undertaken to evaluate behavioural interventions that support women of childbearing 
age to prevent or treat overweight and obesity. However, they did not clearly pre sent the 
outcomes of evaluation over the interventions. How many studies searched showing that 
interventions were effective for obesity prevention? And how many not effective? What are the 
possible reasons for those effective or not effective interventions ?  
 
3. For reviewer 1 and 2, what was the kappa value for them assessing and including 
articles?  
 
4. It is necessary to say something about the quality of articles included in your study.  
 
5. Authors used two specific terms, general weight gain and excessive GWG, in their study. 
Were there some differences between them?  
 
6. Please clearly define participants' age groups, eg., Younger age groups in Table 1.  
 
 
 
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 comments to the authors.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
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 manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
I am able to as sess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manu script:  
 
Acceptable  
 
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, f unding, or salary from an 
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financial ly from the publication of this 
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation t hat may in any way gain or lose 
financially fr om 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, funding, or salary from an organization t hat 
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 co mpeting interests' 
below. If your reply is yes to 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 understan d that my name will be included 
on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted f or 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 in cluded as confidential comments 
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal