Title: Endometrial Histological Patterns and Associated Factors of Abnormal Uterine Bleeding
among Women seeking Gynecological Services from Referral hospitals in Western Uganda: A
Cross-sectional Study
Version: 6 Date: 21 Feb 2025
Reviewer's report:
"PEER REVIEWER ASSESSMENTS:
OBJECTIVE - Full research articles: is there a clear objective that addresses one or several
testable research questions? (Brief or other article types: is there a clear objective?)
Yes - there is a clear objective
DESIGN - Is the current approach (including controls and analysis protocols) appropriate for
the objective?
Yes - the approach is appropriate
EXECUTION - Are the experiments and analyses performed with sufficient technical rigor to
allow confidence in the results?
No - there are major issues
STATISTICS - Is the use of statistics in the manuscript appropriate?
No - there are issues with the statistics in the study
INTERPRETATION - Is the current interpretation/discussion of the results reasonable and not
overstated?
No - there are minor issues
OVERALL MANUSCRIPT POTENTIAL - Has the author addressed your concerns sufficiently
for you to now recommend the work as a technically sound contribution? If not, can further
revisions be made to make the work technically sound?
Maybe - with major revisions
PEER REVIEWER COMMENTS:
GENERAL COMMENTS: The revised manuscript is improved in quality but further revision
is required
REQUESTED REVISIONS:
This is an interesting study examining the endometrial histological patterns and factors
associated with abnormal uterine bleeding among women seeking gynecological services from
referral hospitals in western Uganda using cross sectional study design approach. The research
question seems to be important. My specific comments are stated below;
Abstract:
Within the abstract, the authors need to communicate the mean/median age (and possibly age
range) of the participants.
Please remove the information about the software used for the analysis from the abstract section.
Methods:
Ethical approval – Please, provide information about ethical approval for this study under the
method section. Which institutional review board (IRB)/ethical review committee approve the
conduct of the study? Also please provide the approval number if an IRB approved the conduct of
the study. Research involving human participants and/or human tissues require ethical approval
by an IRB.
Please provide the method you used to deal with potential multicollinearity among independent
variables for your regression analysis.
Did the authors test for interactions among the independent variables? Why or why not?
Also, was model fitting statistics for the final multivariable model performed and reported? If
not, it should be considered.
Was the SPSS software version 22.0 that the authors used, a Windows or Mac version?
Discussion:
Can causal inference be drawn in this study since the study design is cross-sectional in nature?
Please, add this to the discussion section.
Also, this reader believes the discussion section in this paper is a bit weak. An expansion on
what the findings mean and the implications for women’s health in Uganda and other similar
settings should be communicated in this section in greater detail.
ADDITIONAL REQUESTS/SUGGESTIONS:
Language quality needs improvement. A native English speaker should further revise manuscript
to improve clarity and readability"