Reviewer’ s report
Title: Spatial Distribution and Determinants of Early Marriage among Married Women in
Ethiopian: A spatial and Multilevel Analysis
Version: 0Date: 11 Apr 2020
Reviewer's report:
The paper has investigated an important issue because of the extensive prevalence of early
marriage in the Ethiopia. Furthermore, the source of data is rich and relatively new. The paper hasused national representative data and applied advanced model (multilevel analysis) allowing forunderstanding of geographical variation in the occurrence of early marriage among women ofreproductive age. Nevertheless, the paper suffers from the following shortimings:
1. The quality of written English is not suitable for publication and needs an extensive editing.2. The international information used in the "background" is old and needs to be updated. This
is particularly important because the source of data is relatively new.
3. There is no section describing the theoretical background and conceptual framework. This
prevents the paper from establishing a meaningful and coherent link between the literature and thevariables included in the analysis.
4. Although the dependent variable is retrospective, most of the predictors are current-status
variables, which makes them inappropriate determinants of early marriage. Variables such asworking status, media exposure, wealth index, and even education can be expected to change after
marriage, unless proven otherwise.
5. The statistical models used to analyze the data are appropriate but Based on the
aforementioned limitations the results regarding the determinants of early marriage cannot bereliable and so are the conclusions drawn from these results. However, the section on spatialdistribution of early marriage is informative. The method section needs more elaboration on boththe spatial and multilevel methods.
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
NoDoes 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.
NoAre 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 furtherassessment 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 manuscript:
Needs some language corrections before being publishedDeclaration of competing interests
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