Age at Sexual Debut and Multiple Sexual Partnerships among Adolescents in Nigeria: An Assessment of the Mediating Role of the Knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Infections

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

• Thanks for your efforts working on this paper!
• The results of this study are significant in that they provided evidence for the development of strategies for promoting youth sexual health in Nigeria.
• The necessity of the research was specifically described and the research method was well planned. However, the following parts need to be supplemented.

- Please revise the table notation method according to the submission regulations.

- Table 2: p=0.0000 → Please correct it to p<.001.

- Please modify Table 3 according to the logistic regression analysis table format.

- Line 319: ‘~et al., 2016),as~’ : Please put a space before ‘as’

- Line 340: ‘~among this naive~’ → Please edit ‘i’ in naive

- Please describe the strengths and limitations of this study.

 

Author Response

The responses have been included in the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

Researchers have examined the association between age of sexual onset and PEM and the mediating role of STI awareness in the relationship among adolescents.

The article is well written and complies with the necessary quality criteria for publication. With the intention of improving it, I make the following recommendations.

INTRODUCTION

Although the introduction describes the health problem addressed in the article, it is too long (more than 1700 words), which can be tiring for the reader. Furthermore, of the 40 bibliographical references used in this section, only 11 are less than 5 years old.

 

In order to make the text more agile and create a more up-to-date theoretical framework, I recommend summarising this section to around 700 words and updating the bibliography.

 

I also recommend writing the objectives (lines 149-147) in a clearer and more concise way. The way they are worded it seems more like part of the discussion of the article than the preliminary approach to the study. The introduction should end with the phrase "The aim of this study is to establish the relationship between the age of sexual initiation and multiple sexual relations among adolescents in Nigeria and examine the mediating role of knowledge about HIV / AIDS and other STIs in the nexus".

METHOD

The section is well described and is divided into subsections that make it easier to read.

Researchers should include the study design (cross-sectional study) on line 149 and include a subsection on ethical considerations (line 160-161).

Ex. 2.5 Ethical considerations. The data was obtained from the DHS program with permission from the DHS program team through their website: The DHS Program - Data.

I also recommend reviewing section 2.4 as it talks about tobacco use and that is not the dependent variable in this study.

3 RESULTS

 

To maintain uniformity in this section, I recommend starting each sub-section with the text and ending with the table.

Example:

 

3.1 Sample characteristics

 

Lines 222-240 and 217-218 . Insert table 1

 

 

Bivariate analysis of Age at first sex, respondents' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and multiple sexual partnership.

 

Lines 243- 273. Table 2

 

Multivariable Regression Analysis of the relationship between Age at sexual debut, Knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Multiple Sexual Partnership.

 

Lines 282-294. Table 3

 

The researchers have conducted binary logistic regressions so the title of this section should be corrected.

Include standard error in table 3.

 

The researchers have many explanatory variables, but it is not clear from table 3 or the text which ones they have used. What was the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test? If the value of p>0.05 a predictive model cannot be made.

Furthermore, including an explanation of the model in the method section when it is not done in the results does not make sense.

 

The relationship between knowledge of HIV/AIDS is not significant. It should be indicated in the text.

 

 

4 DISCUSSION

 

I recommend including in this section a section on strengths and limitations.

 

5 CONCLUSION

The conclusion responds to the objective, however, I recommend summarising it.

Author Response

Reponses to the review report have been included in the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have made the suggested changes which have improved quality and clarity.
I would like to congratulate the authors for the great work they have done.