Addressing Women’s Needs with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Enhancing the Visibility of Pharmacists in the Public Health Arena

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

While I appreciate the spirit of this study, the organization of the manuscript needs significant improvement. My specific comments are listed below.

Lines	Suggestions
Abstract	Change term vulnerable for disproportionately affected Make more convincing in the first two lines why should we care about the role of the pharmacist on women HIV care https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/Resources.html
37-39	What about the other groups of women of color? E.g. Asian, Native American and Pacific Islander and so on
38-41	Change terminology according to CDC guideline shares above. E.g. White women, Black/African American Women, Hispanic/Latina Women.
37-41	Rephrase with words of disproportionally impact despite of lower population representation. The phrase seems chopped.
43-45	Again women disproportionally impacted compared to men.
46-47	Use term disproportionally impacted
53-63	This paragraph is the core of your commentary and should be placed as second paragraph in the text. Here is seems lost.
71-73	You only mention the role of the pharmacist as an aim, but did not give a background of why should we care. I suggest elaborating one paragraph to explain why we should care and rephrase/shorten the initial paragraphs about disparities for women of color and women vs me.
96	Add women after whites
100	What about the other regions in the US?
109	Gender or biological sex? Adding to that point what about women from LGBTQ+ community?
120	Keep consistency of terms Black/African American women. And Black should have a capitalized B
114	AA women must seek, but do they have same levels of access to it?
123	Capital B for Black women and consistency of terminology
130-143	Here is your why we should care for pharmacist role. This info should be summarized and included in the introduction.
164	African or African American?
173	Change term vulnerable
177-183	Why these studies are not part of the results?
187-191	Same comment as above for Margulis study
References	Review format of citations. Some seem to be unadjusted, e.g. reference n1 and n2

Author Response

Abstract

Change term vulnerable for disproportionately affected

Make more convincing in the first two lines why should we care about the role of the pharmacist on women HIV care

Response: Thank you for the valuable suggestions. We changed the abstract and the entire manuscript from “vulnerable” to “disproportionally affected.”

 

37-39

What about the other groups of women of color? E.g. Asian, Native American and Pacific Islander?

Response: We value your feedback. We added another study conducted with Asian women that strengthened our manuscript.

38-41

Change terminology according to CDC guideline shares above. E.g. White women, Black/African American Women, Hispanic/Latina Women.

Response: We truly value your recommendation. We changed the manuscript and used CDC guidelines.

37-41

Rephrase with words of disproportionally impact despite of lower population representation. The phrase seems chopped.

Response: Thank you for this clarification. We changed the text.

43-45

Again women disproportionally impacted compared to men.

Response: Thank you for this clarification. We changed the text.

 

46-47

Use term disproportionally impacted

Response: We value your suggestion. We changed the manuscript to reflect the suggested terminology.

71-73

You only mention the role of the pharmacist as an aim, but did not give a background of why should we care. I suggest elaborating one paragraph to explain why we should care and rephrase/shorten the initial paragraphs about disparities for women of color and women vs men.

Response: We value this suggestion. Therefore, we added more information in the abstract, and results. The manuscript flows better. Thank you!

96

Add women after whites

Response: We amended the text.

109

Gender or biological sex? Adding to that point what about women from LGBTQ+ community?

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We added information about LGBTQ+ community.

120

Keep consistency of terms Black/African American women. And Black should have a capitalized B

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We capitalized B and used the CDC terminology throughout the manuscript.

114

AA women must seek, but do they have same levels of access to it?

Response: We appreciate your suggestion. The text has been amended.

123

Capital B for Black women and consistency of terminology

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We capitalized B and used the CDC terminology throughout the manuscript.

130-143

Here is your why we should care for pharmacist role. This info should be summarized and included in the introduction.

Response: Thank you for this valuable suggestion. We added more information about the pharmacist roles.

164

African or African American?

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We changed to African American.

173

Change term vulnerable

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We amended the text.

177-183

Why these studies are not part of the results?

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. We amended the text.

References

Review format of citations. Some seem to be unadjusted, e.g. reference n1 and n2

Response: Thank you for the clarification. We made the changes in the references.

Reviewer 2 Report

This commentary reviews the current status of health care received by Women Living With HIV (WLWH), mental health concerns in WLWH and the role of pharmacists in healthcare for WLWH.

This reviewer finds that the authors of this commentary have done a very nice job of in highlighting the gaps in healthcare interventions for addressing the mental health needs of WLWH and pointing out that as has been seen for PLWH, inclusion of pharmacists as part of the team for WLWH to direct HIV therapy and care will lead to higher positive outcomes of the treatment and decreased clinical burden. So, further relevant studies are needed to help fill this knowledge gap and address policy changes to allow pharmacists to be part of the team directing care for WLWH.

Author Response

Response: Thank you for your time to review the manuscript. We made the changes recommended. We truly appreciate it.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript was significantly improved. Follow below my considerations and suggestions for manuscript improvement:

Abstract: Before the review focus include some language of why you are focusing on the role of pharmacists. You presented what you found after the review. But explain a bit why you focused the review on this health care professional.  

Lines 83-144: Since the study you included is with Asian Women; please include rates of HIV for Asian Women as well as their percentage for the US population. Or change for a study example with African American/Black Women, with is the group with higher disparity on HIV prevalence.

References: adjust references font size and formatting to the left side of the page.

Author Response

 

Abstract: Before the review focus include some language of why you are focusing on the role of pharmacists. You presented what you found after the review. But explain a bit why you focused the review on this health care professional.  

Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestion. We made the changes in the text that explains the rationale for focusing on the role of pharmacists.

Lines 83-144: Since the study you included is with Asian Women; please include rates of HIV for Asian Women as well as their percentage for the US population. Or change for a study example with African American/Black Women, with is the group with higher disparity on HIV prevalence.

Response: We value your recommendation. We amended the manuscript, and this addition strengthened it.

References: adjust references font size and formatting to the left side of the page.

Response: Thank you for your suggestion. We made the changes.