Comfortable Seatbelts for Pregnant Women with Twins in Japan: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study on Seatbelt Usage
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article reports the online survey results of seatbelt-use habits of pregnant women with twin fetuses in Japan and attempts to define 'ideal' seatbelts. It is very important to research into safety of pregnant drivers, a rather neglected population.
Once the paper is improved the authors might like to reconsider the title of the article. The numbers in the following remarks are the reference to the line numbers.
51 .. enter the workforce later in life and delay marriage.. Ref needed
54 .. with the increasing numbers of twin pregnancies .. Ref needed
66 .. more information on contractor
67 Numbers (n= ) are needed for each trimester group
111 Ideal Seat belt.. There is a fundamental issue here: Researchers can identify the problems with the existing products then it is their job to use their skills and judgement to find the solution (or perfect solution) . The engineering designer might get insprired by the users idea however the user (of any product) is not necessarily an engineering designer. It is unusual to expect the user to find a solution - let alone the ideal one. Offering possible options is also wrong on the researchers side before they know the problem. This comment is also relevant for the title - which in my opinion must be corrected. There are far too many parameters in a seatbelt design, user comfort is only one of them.
147-153 I believe re-writing this paragraph in better English will make it more focussed
154-158 same as above
Figure 2 Where did the before pregnancy data come from? Explaination needed
201-202 When talking about statistical significance it is also important to consider the actual data and make comment on it especially when the sample is so small.
Table 1 This is the first time we see the numbers!
Figure 3 - 'Skin itching' relevance needs explanation.
225 The percentages are intriguing - needs explanation. Or is it the other way round?
Figue 4 Use of percentages would provide better representation
242 Ideal ? (not really) - Might like to use 'Opinion of .. '
335 ???
348 Ideal ?
274-399 Discussion is mainly the repetition of the results and hypothesis; e.g. in lines 357-358 women's desire for safety and comfort is very important so the reserchers only need them to identify the problem as mentioned at the beginning of this feedback.
Another major weakness of this article is the comparison of habits of women with single/twin pregnancies. What is different? Why?
Finally, to improve the quality of the research and manuscript, authors should take the advantage of experience/findings resulted from extensive studies carried on for 15 years at Loughborough University, UK on the safety of pregnant drivers. All published work (including one in this Journal).
Author Response
Please see attached file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe subject of your article is particularly interesting and very topical.
In order to make your article technically and scientifically robust, it will be necessary to make some improvements to the different chapters of the manuscript, signalled throughout the document.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsSignificant improvements have been made to your manuscript. Thank you very much.
My only suggestion would be to mention in the title that the article focuses only on Japan.
Author Response
Comments 1: Significant improvements have been made to your manuscript. Thank you very much.
My only suggestion would be to mention in the title that the article focuses only on Japan.
Response1: Following your suggestion, we have added 'in Japan' to the title.
