PGPH-D-21-00077 Mobile health intervention for promotion of eye health literacy PLOS Global Public Health   *Decision: Major Revision* 

Dear Dr. Sharma,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS Global Public Health. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS Global Public Health’s publication criteria as it currently stands.   Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 26 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at globalpubhealth@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pgph/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript: 

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

 

Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Nick Drydakis, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS Global Public Health

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Reviewer's comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Does this manuscript meet PLOS Climate’s publication criteria? Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe methodologically and ethically rigorous research with conclusions that are appropriately drawn based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available (please refer to the Data Availability Statement at the start of the manuscript PDF file)?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception. The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS Climate does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors present a well written article documenting the use of text messaging as a means of improving eye health literacy in a low middle-income country. They clearly demonstrate an increased awareness of eye related issues in the participants in the intervention group.

However, there are certain questions that need to be answered.

Did the participants know they were in an interventional study (although they might not know what the intervention was)?

Did they know they would receive a Free Eye Exam at the time or enrollment?

Add in the key for the demographic data needs to be added just for clarity.

As the authors pointed out they selected a very defined population of young, presumably English speaking, college students. Such a population does not necessarily reflect the target population.

Another issue is the language used. The authors used an English language-based text message and a link to a English language website. Would this be an issue when dealing with a diverse population such as in India, especially from a public health perspective? Many of the target populations may not be fluent/comfortable with English.

Any thoughts on the use of vernacular languages??

Did any of the participants or their family have any eye issues other than those listed in the paper?

Are smartphones as a means of public health measures, feasible in the rural parts of a country?

I believe the authors touched up on this but is it possible that some students talked to each other perhaps two people, one of whom got the link and one who did not?

Can the increased EHL scores be due to the general increased interest since they were participating in clinical trial or the intervention itself?

Were there any differences in sub-group analysis, e.g. within the intervention group did the Science majors do better than Arts Majors?

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Reviewer #1: No

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Mobile health intervention for promotion of eye health literacy

PGPH-D-21-00077R1

Dear Dr. Sharma,

We're pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you'll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you'll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact globalpubhealth@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Nick Drydakis, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS Global Public Health

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

In the current version of the manuscript, the authors have addressed the reviewer’s comments and suggestions.

Reviewers' comments: