Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Understanding the Endorsement of wife beating in Ghana: Evidence of the 2014 Ghana  
Demo graphic and Health Survey  
 
Version: 1 Date: 13 Sep 2019  
 
Reviewer: Reviewer 2  
 
Reviewe r's report:  
PEER REVIEWER ASSESSMENTS:  
 
OBJECTIVE - Full research articles: is there a clear objective that addresses a testable research 
question(s) (brief or other article typ es: 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?  
No - there are minor issues  
 
EXECUTION - Are the experiments and analyses perform ed with technical rigor to allow 
confidence in the results?  
No - there are minor issues  
 
STATISTICS - Is the use of statistics in the manuscript appropriate?  
Yes - appropriate statistical analyses have been used in the study  
 
INTERPRETATION - Is the curren t interpretation/discussion of the results reasonable and not 
overstated?  
No - there are minor issues  
 
OVERALL MANUSCRIPT POTENTIAL - Is the current version of this work technically 
sound? If not, can revisions be made to make the work technically sound?  
Maybe - with major revisions  
 
PEER REVIEWER COMMENTS:  
 
GENERAL COMMENTS:  
The overall impression of the study is that it is generally well -written and conducts secondary 
analysis of DHS data from Ghana. This is an important setting to study, since limited literature 
on IPV exists from Ghana.  
 
REQUESTED REVISIONS:  
1. Why is beliefs about wife beating used as the primary outcome measure, rather than 
perpetration / victimization? I worry that this paper will not add to the extant literature and that 
the study of IPV -related beliefs is less powerful than actually study ing the violence itself.  
2. Why is the series of IPV beliefs summed to a scale of 0 -5? Have the authors used the 
continuous measures in any of the analyses? I can only see the logistic regression.  
3. The section on descriptive statistics can be shortened. There is also no need to report full 
AORs and CIs throughout the text - perhaps only the most important estimates can be presented.  
4. In Discussion, again remind the reader why beliefs about wife beating are important and how 
they inform the actual rates of physical IPV in this setting.  
ADDITIONAL REQUESTS/SUGGESTIONS:  
None  
 
 
 
 
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the  authors.  
 
No 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
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 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 manuscr ipt: 
 
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, f ees, 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 n ow 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 org anization that 
holds or has applied for patents relating t o 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.  
 
This reviewer has been recruited by a partner organization, Research Square. Reviewers with 
declared or apparent competing interests are not utilized for these reviews. This r eviewer has 
agreed to publication of their comments online under a Creat ive Commons Attribution License 
attributed to Research Square and was paid a small honorarium for  completing the review within 
a specified timefra me. Honoraria for reviews such as this are paid regardless of the reviewer 
recommendation.  
 
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I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal