Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Exploring the feasibility of using mobile phones to improve the management of clients 
with cervical cancer precursor lesions.  
 
Version: 0 Date: 30 Nov 2018  
 
Reviewer: Manuel Zorzi  
 
Reviewer's report:  
In their manuscript "Exploring the feasibility of using mobile phones to improve the 
management of clients with cervical cancer precursor lesions", Jennifer Moodley and colleagues 
evaluated if SMS messages sent to the mobile phones of women taking a pap smear could be 
used in order to communicate the result of the test and, if required, to invite (and remind) the 
woman to colposcopy.  
 
The subject fits the scopes of BMC women's health and it is of particular interest as it deals with 
a possible strategy to improve communication between the Health System and the population in 
an African country.  
 
Here are my comments  
 
Major  
 
As far as I understood, the study was carried out in an urban setting. Do the authors be lieve that 
their results could be generalized to all the population in South Africa? In particular, what about 
women living in rural areas? It could be useful to add a comment in the discussion session, 
possibly accompanied by some data about the proportio n of phone ownership outside the urban 
setting in SA.  
 
Tables 1 and 2. I would drop the lines with data that are exactly complementary to others. I.e.: 
Table 1: "Informal" type of housing; "Unemployed"; Table 2: Ever lost… "No"  
 
Table 1. Please add the HIV  status  
 
Tables 3 and 4: I suggest to drop the column with the Unadjusted Odds Ratios. They add very 
little information, which can be dismissed.  
I would then change the heading of the Adjusted OR column in "Adjusted* Odds Ratio (95% 
CI)" and put in a legen d "*adjusted by all the variables reported in the table"  
The heading of the column with p -values could be simply "p -value"  
 
Tables 3 and 4: women's age is not reported. Why?  
 
Minor  
 
Background (page 4, line 26): please specify the acronym HIV in the text  
 
Results (page 21 line 16): delete "protect"  
 
Please replace REF #1 with one of the following:  
 
Ferlay J, Ervik M, Lam F, Colombet M, Mery L, Piñeros M, Znaor A, Soerjomataram I, Bray F 
(2018). Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Today. Lyon, France: International Agency for 
Research on Cancer. Available from: https://gco.iarc.fr/today  , accessed [DD Month YYYY]. 
(Website citation)  
OR  
 
Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA , Jemal A (2018). Global Cancer 
Statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 
185 Countries. CA Cancer J Clin. Full text available at: 
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21492 .  
 
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.  
 
Yes 
 
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 t he 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 assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the ma nuscript:  
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing in terests, 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, e ither 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 that holds 
or has applied for patents relatin g 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 int erests' 
below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
None  
 
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 will be posted on th e 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