Translation and Validation Study of the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey in a Greek Population of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus and their Parents
, Ourania Andreopoulou 2,†, Sophia Daskalaki 3, Eleni Kotanidou 4, Angeliki Vakka 1, Assimina Galli-Tsinopoulou 4, Bessie E. Spiliotis 1, Linda Gonder-Frederick 5 and Sotirios Fouzas 6,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is well constructed, it is easy to read and understand, the tables are useful and well designed. I found it very interesting and useful and I think it is ready to be published. As mentioned I would suggest a larger sample size but still it is enough to give reliable results. It is very important to use a reliable test in order to measure the level of fear of hypoglycemia which is a big problem for diabetics on T1DM.
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the kind comments and for suggesting publication of our manuscript.
Reviewer 2 Report
The study aims to translate and validate the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey (HFS) questionnaire in Greek for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and their parents. The HFS measures fear of hypoglycemia and consists of two versions, one for children (CHFS) and one for parents (PHFS). The study used a sample of 100 Greek children with T1DM and their parents. The participants completed the Greek version of the HFS questionnaire and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM 3.0 Diabetes Module). The results showed that the translated HFS questionnaire had good construct validity and internal consistency. The study also found significant correlations between the HFS factors and the PedsQLTM subscales, indicating convergent validity. Additionally, the test-retest reliability of the HFS questionnaire was found to be high. Overall, the study suggests that the Greek version of the HFS questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing fear of hypoglycemia in Greek children and adolescents with T1DM and their parents. Overall, the article is well written/presented and can be considered for publication.
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the kind comments and for suggesting publication of our manuscript.
Reviewer 3 Report
This is good study and has been presented in a good way.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.docx
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the kind comment.
Reviewer 4 Report
Fear of hypoglycemia can be a significant burden to people with type 1 diabetes. This fear affects the optimal management of diabetes mellitus as well as quality of life of people with type 1 diabetes.
This manuscript is interesting for health professionals who treat children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes and the described questionnaire helps identifying fear for hypoglycaemia among patients.
The manuscript is well written, the main results/correlations are presented in tables and the cited references are relevant.
I have only a very minor comment:
The authors describe in Abstract ‘’the Hypoglycemia Fear of Survey (HFS) questionnaire’’. The word ‘’of’’ should be removed.
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the kind comments and the minor comment. The word “of” has been removed.
