Title: Barriers and Facilitators to Attending and Being Physically Active during Recreation
Time among Women Incarcerated
Version: 1 Date: 19 Apr 2022
Reviewer:  Alex Waddell
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for the opportunity to review “Barriers and Facilitators to Attending and Being
Physically Active during Recreation Time among Women Incarcerated” for BMC Women’s
Health. This is an important piece of research with clear recommendations that will be useful
for readers. Hopefully, the comments below are useful.
1. Motivators and facilitators are used interchangeably throughout the paper.  Could the authors
please explain what is meant by each and either use motivators OR facilitators or use each
specifically rather than interchangeably.
2. Survey development – How was the questionnaire developed? Were the motivators and
barriers taken from previous research or developed in consultation with stakeholders with in-
depth knowledge of the factors specific to women in jail / prison? Can you please explain this
in the paper?
a. The footnotes from figures 1, 2, and 3 could be used in the methods section to provide clarity
on the specific questions asked regarding motivators and barriers to rec-time.
3. Data Analysis - There needs to be more clarity regarding the themes used to describe
motivators and barriers. Which of the questions asked related to each theme? I.e. page 8 line 118
“Most participants identified environmental- and health-related motivators to attend rec-time”
– which of the questions relate to each theme (is “opportunity to get fresh air” environmental
or health related or both)?
4. Further to the above question, how were the themes developed? Was this based on previous
research or a framework such as the Theoretical Domains Framework?
5. Data Analysis – The authors report providing open-ended questions for participants to report
their own motivators, barriers etc. The authors should describe how these were analysed (i.e.
deductive or inductive analysis).
6. Page 6 lines 80 and 86 – Authors mention participants self-reporting general health and
activity levels. Were participants provided examples for each rating (i.e. number of minutes of
activity per day or other example)? Please explain.
7. Page 9 lines 127-140 – Some of the quotes used to describe “good for their mental health in
some way” have a strong religious/spiritualism theme. The authors may like to separate these
from “mental health” and comment on this as it appears to be a clear theme from the quotes
chosen.
8. Page 10 lines 151-152 – This quote appears to be more of a motivator rather than a barrier to
rec-time. Could the authors please explain the use of this quote here?
9. Page 13 lines 223-244, this is an excellent discussion of the effects of COVID-19 on the study,
thank you.
10. Formatting and Grammar – There are numerous formatting and grammar mistakes
throughout the paper. I have tried to provide examples, but please re-read carefully for any I
may have missed.
a. Page 3 line 11 – “Women tend to gain weight while incarcerated.(6)” the citation should come
before the full stop. This is repeated throughout the article.
b. Page 10 line 156 – this quote is missing an “us” (“some of don’t have the money”)
c. Page 10 line 158 – “Some participants indicated did not”, please fix this.
d. Page 12 line 190-192 this sentence needs rewriting; environmental conditions are a different
barrier to age related barriers. I believe there are two parts to this sentence that could be two
separate sentences.
e. Page 12 line 200 - “stress” should be “stressed”
f. Page 12 line 201 – “a woman” be “women”
11. It would be helpful to have the tables and figures inserted throughout the paper for ease of
reading rather than at the end.