Title: Knowledge regarding human papillomavirus and cervical cancer prevention among
medical students from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand
Version: 0 Date: 22 Oct 2023
Reviewer's report:
This article reported an important point that health personnel including doctors at the primary
health care unit have an essential role in cervical cancer prevention in the population. Sufficient
knowledge of cervical cancer prevention of the primary health care physician is important.
However, there are some points that need to be modified. Please find some comments below:
Introduction
1) The most recent of cervical cancer incidence in Thailand from the Cancer in Thailand Vol.
X. should be used.
2) The role of the doctor in cervical cancer prevention is a highlight of this study. Please add the
references to show that the primary health care physician has a role in the communication and
promotion of cervical cancer prevention in the community. The reference can be some studies
from other countries.
Materials and methods
3) The author tried out the questionnaire with 10 first-year obstetrics and gynecology residents
who have specialists in cervical cancer prevention and may have working experience. How the
author be sure that the questionnaire is not too specific and difficult for the students which may
cause low scores?  Please comment on this in the discussion.
4) In statistical analysis, to be able to use the t-test and the one-way analysis, the normality test
results need to be shown. Please add the results.
5) Why categorize the duration time after finishing their obstetrics and gynecology rotation to
3 following groups: < 15 months, 15–18 months, and > 18 months.
Results
6) What is the exact reliability coefficient for all topics?
This should be present in a single value because all 12 questions should be used to calculate
this coefficient.
7) This study found that students who completed the department rotation 15–18 months
before answering the questionnaire obtained higher scores than students who completed the
questionnaire < 15 months. Please comment why. This variable should be considered as an
ordinal rather than a categorical variable.
Discussion
8) The first paragraph needs to be revised to show the important role of a medical doctor in both
primary and secondary prevention of cervical cancer in the community and their knowledge is
essential to the prevention. Please add references.
9) Add the references to support the following sentence: “The assessment of medical students’
knowledge about HPV infection and cervical cancer prevention can guide the development of
more effective strategies for health promotion and education.”
10) Since the standard questionnaire is not available, the total score is not comparable. The
authors need to add more details of specific questions that are similar between this study
and other studies in each content i.e. knowledge of HPV infection, cervical cancer, and HPV
vaccines.
Other minor points
- The authors don’t need to mention the compensation in the article. Unless the authors want to
discuss this about the participation rate which is not quite high.
-Write the full address of the affiliation.
-Table 1 is not necessary because all the questions also appear in Table 2.
-Table 3: (>.05) is not necessary. Please remove.