Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title:  Factors Affecting Trust in Healthcare among Middle -Aged to Older Korean American 
Women  
 
Version: 0 Date: 24 Apr 2018 
 
Reviewer:  Taha  Itani 
 
Reviewer’s report:  
 
In this secondary analysis of data collected from Korean American (KA) women, the authors 
report on the factors influencing trust in the healthcare system and p roviders among KAs. The 
results show that higher levels of acculturation and lower levels of discrimination were identified 
as predictors of higher levels of trust in healthcare providers. Findings from this study could 
encourage future work to focus on de veloping interventions to increase trust in healthcare among 
older KA women. Overall this is an interesting study and it will be of interest to the Journal 
readership. Minor comments are listed below.  
 
 
Title: I would suggest that authors consider modifying  the Title to reflect the women's age group 
(50-74 years).  
 
 
Methods  
 
Page 5, line 47 -48: please change "age" to "aged".  
 
Page 7, line 42 -43: please consider changing "Background variables" to "socio -demographic 
variables". Self -rated health wouldn't fall un der this categorization though.  
 
Page 8, line 6: who were the participants in this context?  
 
Page 8, line 25 -26: please explain the SEM process in more details (especially that the authors 
have used Path analysis which inherently has more restrictive set of assumptions).   
 
Did the authors have enough power to answer the research questions in this study?  
 
 
Discussion  
 
Limitations: please discuss the implication of selection bias (most participants were naturalized 
immigrants).  
 
 
Conclusion  
The last sentence in the conclusion is too generic. Please consider using different wordings.  
 
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 asses s 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the autho rs. 
 
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 ed itors.  
 
I am a ble to assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
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, 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 may 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 relatin g to the content of the 
manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, 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 competing interests.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. 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 wil l 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 included as confidential comments 
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal