Web-Based Experiential Nutrition Education Intervention “The Green Hub” to Promote Sustainable and Healthy Diets among Young Adults in Australia
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you very much to Editor for inviting me to review your publication. Artykuł jest prawidłowo przygotowany, jednak wymaga poprawek. Sugestie zostały przekazane autorom.
Thank you very much to Editor for inviting me to review your publication. Congratulations on your research on the field of sustainable and healthy diets is an emerging area in public health nutrition research aiming to optimize health and reduce environmental impact of food systems. Therefore develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a four-week web-based experiential nutrition education program “The Green Hub” in promoting sustainable and healthy diets in young adults in Australia
Therefore, developing and evaluating the effectiveness of a four-week online nutrition education program, "The Green Hub," in promoting a balanced and healthy diet in young adults in Australia is critical to this goal.
Below are my suggestions / comments:
The survey designed properly using modern communication techniques. However, there are doubts about the very small sample, on which it is difficult to make valid inferences. Besides, no statistical analysis was carried out in the study, probably due to the small size. However, this is a pilot study. I hope that studies will be conducted on a larger sample that will give more reliable results.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript and for providing feedback.
We agree that a bigger sample size was needed for a more significant statistical analysis and conclusive results. However, this is only a pilot study and study education material were trialled through process evaluation.
Recruitment period was limited to three weeks due to time constraints. We have mentioned small sample size in our limitations section (page 10 - line 376). It would be ideal to replicate the Green Hub study into larger population groups in the future.
Thank you.
Reviewer 2 Report
In this Manuscript Ghammachi and Collaborators investigated the effectiveness of the “Green Hub” pilot study, a four-week web-based experiential nutrition education intervention, to promote sustainable and healthy diets among young adults in Australia. The Authors found that the “Green Hub” experiential nutrition education program positively impacts on participants’ willingness to adopt sustainable and healthy diets.
The Manuscript is well written, the overall idea is original and the use of facebook as a recruiting platform for the study is innovative. However the Authors have to address some points before its publication:
1) The majority of participants in the study were females (86.7%) and all the analysis has been performed by putting together the results obtained both in female and male. It will be interesting to split the results among female and male.
2) A pie chart instead of Table 6 will help readers to fix all the concepts.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for your feedback, we really appreciate it.
Kindly find attached the responses to your suggestions.
Regards,
Nadine
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
In the present work, Ghammachi et al. try to explain the web-based experiential nutrition education intervention “The Green Hub” to promote sustainable and healthy diets among young adults in Australia. There are some questions that should be considered.
1. There are only 17 participants, so the sample size is very small. Therefore, the results and conclusion are not representative.
2. Editing of English language and style is needed. Pease revise throughout.
For example, ‘By 2050, food systems will need to secure food for around 31 10 billion people while helping them achieve optimal health and minimize environmental pressure (1, 2).’
‘Agricultural GHGEs, increased by 14% globally, and recently reached 30% causing a significant increase in global temperature (2, 6, 7).’
‘Poor dietary habits can be due to changing life circumstances while transitioning from adolescence into adulthood (20) Challenging life’
3. Why select the period of July to September in Sydney? There are differences in fruits, vegetables between July to September and other seasons.
4. ‘2.2. Sample size’, there are only 17 participants. However, in Table 3, the socio-demographic characteristics of participants at baseline (Total N=15). There are TWO participants left?
5. Line 150, detail information for ‘SPSS data analysis software’ should be provided.
6. Line 162, ‘The majority of participants were females (86.7%)’, it is known that the gender has effects on the result.
7. Table 3, there are 13 students of 15 participants, which may have effects on the result.
8. Format of references is not suitable for this Journal.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for your feedback/suggestions.
Kindly find attached our responses to comments. Regarding extensive English language editing, the manuscript was revised by all authors and an English native speaker.
Regards,
Nadine
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
This is interesting and timely research. I offer the following to further strengthen the paper:
Pg2 line 46 explain or provide examples of the negative impacts
Line65 unpack or define sustainable and healthy diets
Please have a quick check for typos and missing full stops etc
The method is clear and appropriate. The number of participants is very low - just 17, and reporting these as 89% of completed consent forms is perhaps misleading! And almost all female too. Whilst the results are interesting I do have some concern with this low representation - not least because they seem to be very engaged in the topic from the start anyway. I strongly feel that re-running this to gain more data would seriously strengthen your work.
Pg 9 some rather sweeping statements are made here - especially given your small sample size, please modify.
The sample size is included in the limitations section
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for your valuable feedback. Kindly find attached the responses.
Regards,
Nadine
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
The sample size is very small, so the conclusion may be not suitable. Therefore, conclusion should be revised.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for your comment. We have edited the conclusion (line 404 - line 406). The manuscript was also reviewed by an English native speaker.
Kind regards,
Nadine
