Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Economic burden of symptomatic iron deficiency - A Survey among Swiss women  
 
Version: 3 Date: 07 Nov 2018  
 
Reviewer: Michèle Dramaix -Wilmet  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
The authors provided satisfactory answers to my questions a nd their modifications in the text are 
also relevant. However, I still have two minor comments.  
 
In my 1st review:  
 
The question about Figure 1was: "266 women (18%) with missing information were eliminated, 
were the characteristics of these women not too d ifferent from those of women included in the 
analyses?"  
 
And the author's response is: "given that some information on their iron deficiency status was 
missing, we were forced to exclude them from the sample. We are not able to judge, whether 
these individu als were different from the rest of the sample".  
 
My new comment is: I agree with the authors to say that women with ID status missing must be 
excluded from the analyzes. But my question was about the characteristics of these women. 
Were differences in age,  civil status, region … (characteristics described in table 1) between 
excluded and non -excluded women? Is it possible to analyze these differences or at least some of 
them?  
 
The question about the hypothesis tests was: "The methodology refers to 3 tests: t, Mann -
Whitney and Chi²; where are these tests applied?"  
 
And the author's response is: "Discrete numeric/ continuous variables were analyzed with a t -test 
(for non -skewed data) or a non -parametric test (e.g. Mann -Whitney U test for skewed data). 
Bivariate  associations of categorical variables were assessed with the chi squared test. Mean 
number of consultations and mean duration of sick leave showed a skewed distribution. 
Therefore, we used a non -parametric test. We understand your point, but we decided to  remain 
the description of the statistics and results as it is. Otherwise, we would need to add for all p -
values the applied test. We think it is more reader -friendly, if we describe in the methods the 
different tests and How / when they were applied."  
 
My new comment is: I agree with the authors to say that adding the applied test for all p -values 
can make the text less readable. However in the text and tables, I found only 3 p -values: 2 p.8 
(Wilcoxon -Mann -Whitney test) and 1 for the Spearman correlation co efficient (p. 10). So my 
question is: where in the results, were t -test and Chi squared test applied?  
 
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 the manus cript 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 editors.  
 
I am able to assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscri pt: 
 
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 financial ly from the publication of this 
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation t hat may in any way gain or lose 
financially from the publication of this manuscript, either no w 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 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 understan d that my name will be included 
on my  report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted f or publication, my named report 
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors' 
responses. I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access C reative 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 in cluded as confidential comments  
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal