Effect of Adolescent Health Policies on Health Outcomes in India

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thanks for the opportunity to review this manuscript titled “Effect of adolescent health policies on health outcomes in India”.

Below are some suggestions/recommendations for authors:

1.     Table 1. It will be good provide references for documents used. This can be done by using suggested citations and or links in the table or in text.

2.     Table 2. Same as above.

3.     Table 2. Out of curiosity, why analyse data for 14-19 years when the study is about 10-19years?

4.     Provide some limitations of the study.

5.     The manuscript would benefit from English Language editing.

Author Response

Thanks for the opportunity to review this manuscript titled “Effect of adolescent health policies on health outcomes in India”.

Below are some suggestions/recommendations for authors:

1. Table 1. It will be good provide references for documents used. This can be done by using suggested citations and or links in the table or in text.

Response: Thank you for your comments, the source of the policies were updated in table 1

2. Table 2. Same as above.

 Response: Thank you for your comments, the source of table 2 is DHS and it is stated in the methodology and in the table capture

3. Table 2. Out of curiosity, why analyse data for 14-19 years when the study is about 10-19years?

Response: We appreciate your inquiry, the data of age 14 – 19 years was analysed because DHS includes only data up of 14 years old.

4. Provide some limitations of the study.

Response: Thank you for the suggestion, the limitation was added see line 420 - 25

5. The manuscript would benefit from English Language editing.

Response: We appreciate your comment, language has been reviewed

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, I appreciated your submission concerning the effect of adolescent health policies on health outcome in your country.

In general, your work is well structured and easy to read.

I’ve some suggestions to improve it:

·       Lines 92 correct the typo

·       Lines 100-105: In my opinion, such a detailed description is unnecessary

·       Lines 106-110 I suggest moving this part to the Introduction

·       Line 133 I suggest adding “the” before Demographic Health Survey data

·       Lines 255-257 the same description is repeated twice

·       Why did you use “decrease” in the following statements?

-          Lines 286-287 with percentages decreasing from 9.3% in 2005/2006 to 20.8%

-          Lines 290-291: The challenges related to the distance to health facilities experienced decreased from 24.6% in 2005/2006 to 31.5% in 2015/2016

·       Lines 302-305. In my opinion, the general trend of these indicators shows quite a stability: increase and decrease are misused

·       Lines 309-310: Is this sentence a subtitle?

 

Finally, I suggest placing more emphasis on the role of parental/societal resistance on the adolescents' capability in addressing their health needs. This could be the link for a further interesting research topic.

I hope my suggestions would be helpful and I sincerely believe the audiences will benefit greatly from this work.

Dear authors, in general your work is well written but I suggest some minor editing of English language to improve the comprehension of your work

Author Response

Dear authors, I appreciated your submission concerning the effect of adolescent health policies on health outcome in your country. In general, your work is well structured and easy to read. I’ve some suggestions to improve it:

 

Thank you for your valuable comments and suggestion, please find our response under each point.

• Lines 92 correct the typo

Response: The typo was corrected

• Lines 100-105: In my opinion, such a detailed description is unnecessary

Response: The paragraph was revised accordingly

• Lines 106-110 I suggest moving this part to the Introduction

Response: Paragraph was moved to the introduction

• Line 133 I suggest adding “the” before Demographic Health Survey data

Response: Done

• Lines 255-257 the same description is repeated twice

Response: Repetition was adjusted  

• Why did you use “decrease” in the following statements?

-          Lines 286-287 with percentages decreasing from 9.3% in 2005/2006 to 20.8%

-          Lines 290-291: The challenges related to the distance to health facilities experienced decreased from 24.6% in 2005/2006 to 31.5% in 2015/2016

• Lines 302-305. In my opinion, the general trend of these indicators shows quite a stability: increase and decrease are misused

Response: The description of table 2 was revised and corrected based on your comments and other reviewer’s comments

• Lines 309-310: Is this sentence a subtitle?

Response: It was subtitled but some changes happened changed the meaning, the paragraph was adjusted now.

Finally, I suggest placing more emphasis on the role of parental/societal resistance on the adolescents' capability in addressing their health needs. This could be the link for a further interesting research topic.

Response: Thank you for this suggestion, more elaboration was added in the discussion line 337 – 343 and conclusion line 431 -33

I hope my suggestions would be helpful and I sincerely believe the audiences will benefit greatly from this work.

Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you for inviting me to review the article entitled "Effect of adolescent health policies on health outcomes in India".

 

Initially, I start with the Abstract: I suggest that the authors review the content, as it is more than enough that it is behaved by the objective, method, main results and conclusion with the relevance of the research.

 

Introduction: I suggest reinforcing the objective of the research and contextualizing its scientific relevance.

 

In the discussion of the results, I suggest that the authors bring the delimitations of the research as well as suggestions for future work.

 

Finally, I suggest that a concluding chapter be prepared, contextualizing the main findings of the authors.

Author Response

Thank you for inviting me to review the article entitled "Effect of adolescent health policies on health outcomes in India".
Initially, I start with the Abstract: I suggest that the authors review the content, as it is more than enough that it is behaved by the objective, method, main results and conclusion with the relevance of the research.
Response: Abstract was revised 
Introduction: I suggest reinforcing the objective of the research and contextualizing its scientific relevance.
Response: we did not understand what the reviewer intend to suggest here, however, in this study, we place a robust emphasis on the core objective, which centers around a comprehensive evaluation of adolescent health policies and strategies implemented from 2006 to 2020. Our endeavor encompasses not only the assessment of these policies but also delves into a meticulous analysis of their real-world impact on adolescent health within the Indian context. By undertaking this thorough examination, we aim to provide an in-depth understanding of the dynamic relationship between policy formulation and its tangible outcomes on the health and well-being of adolescents in India. This research holds significant scientific relevance as it sheds light on the effectiveness of policy interventions and contributes to the broader discourse on enhancing the health outcomes of this crucial demographic group. 
 
In the discussion of the results, I suggest that the authors bring the delimitations of the research as well as suggestions for future work.
 Response: Thank you for the suggestion, the limitation and recommendation were updated in the text. 
Finally, I suggest that a concluding chapter be prepared, contextualizing the main findings of the authors.
Response: Done, thank you 

Reviewer 4 Report

Thank you for sharing this important article related to Indian adolescent health implications from policy changes.  

There are many sentences with unnecessary commas and grammatic errors- for example line 19, 23, 24 all include commas that are not needed or are incorrect. Please consider revision. 

Line 42-43 should be re-written to state that recent changes in policies have included adolescents, which had previously been deferred from consideration of political action. 

Line 50, remove comma

line 57, remove comma.

Line 61-62, rewrite this sentence to state that the population is important for policy makers to consider.  

Line 78- is anemia as big of concern as the other issues that are outlines in the policies and issues among teens in India?  If so, please offer data that suggest the extent of anemia among teens and how it's impacting their academic progression or health outcomes.  This issue seems to be more related to dietary choices/options of the family rather than the other concerns that have been outlined in the previous paragraphs. 

Line 92: captalize the first letter of the sentence.

line 106-108.  You have already addressed this earlier in the paper-- either keep it here or move it to the other section sharing background of teens in India.  (don't need it twice). 

Table 2 has much of this data, so please consider offering the most important points in this paragraph and referring the audience to the table for other information. 

Line 268, remove extra spacing in line.

Paragraph 297-  Is this related to the anemia issue or should there be more background that speaks to dietary issues that range from anemia to disordered eating to obesity among teens in India?

There are very important comments in your discussion section but you've also repeated much of the data/findings.  Please consider keeping your comments/discussion focused on what the data MEANS and what you propose/recommend for ongoing health improvements for youth.  What do you want the audience to take away from this paper?  

Acceptable quality of English Language but punctuation is incorrect. 

Author Response

Thank you for sharing this important article related to Indian adolescent health implications from policy changes. 

There are many sentences with unnecessary commas and grammatic errors- for example line 19, 23, 24 all include commas that are not needed or are incorrect. Please consider revision.

Response: Done, thanks

Line 42-43 should be re-written to state that recent changes in policies have included adolescents, which had previously been deferred from consideration of political action.

Response: Done Thank you

Line 50, remove comma

line 57, remove comma.

Line 61-62, rewrite this sentence to state that the population is important for policy makers to consider. 

Response: all above comments were addressed, thank you  

Line 78- is anemia as big of concern as the other issues that are outlines in the policies and issues among teens in India?  If so, please offer data that suggest the extent of anemia among teens and how it's impacting their academic progression or health outcomes.  This issue seems to be more related to dietary choices/options of the family rather than the other concerns that have been outlined in the previous paragraphs.

Response: Paragraph was adjusted, thank you  

Line 92: captalize the first letter of the sentence.

Response: done

line 106-108.  You have already addressed this earlier in the paper-- either keep it here or move it to the other section sharing background of teens in India.  (don't need it twice).

Response: sentences were removed   

Table 2 has much of this data, so please consider offering the most important points in this paragraph and referring the audience to the table for other information.

Response: Description of the table were revised based on your suggestion, thank you

Line 268, remove extra spacing in line.

Response: removed

Paragraph 297- Is this related to the anemia issue or should there be more background that speaks to dietary issues that range from anemia to disordered eating to obesity among teens in India?

Response: The results of this study did not discuss the underlying cause of the anaemia maybe we will address these factors in the next paper.

There are very important comments in your discussion section but you've also repeated much of the data/findings.  Please consider keeping your comments/discussion focused on what the data MEANS and what you propose/recommend for ongoing health improvements for youth.  What do you want the audience to take away from this paper? 

Response: the discussion were reviewed and tried to adjusted according your comments thank you