A Mixed-Longitudinal Study of Height Velocity of Greek Schoolchildren and the Milestones of the Adolescent Growth Spurt

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Overall, the study contributes to the understanding of growth, ATO and PHV and growth after PHV in schoolchildren especially by adding descriptive information and percentiles of growth as measured every 6 months in Greek children. I would suggest that Greek children should also be added into the title of the paper as nations have unique growth patterns although there are universal tendencies that is comparable.  This uniqueness should also be highlighted for the Greek children in this study. Please also discuss possible reasons for the notable differences in ATO compared to other studies that were found and cited.

It is recommended (Bayli) that the time between growth measurements should be increased in the time of rapid growth to about 3 months apart. Although it was an aim of the study to determine when PHV would happen in this group, it can be added as a limitation and a recommendation to obtain more exact information of growth changes during the estimated PHV period as estimated from other published studies

Line 46. Please add a reference for the statement.

Line 49. The authors refer to only 4 longitudinal studies.  Maybe also report on other existing longitudinal studies. I am missing a few. Please add them. Also show limitations of published studies eg old studies, small groups or the length of the follow up study period and use this information to show how your study accommodate these limitations to add new information to existing information.    

The results of these studies should also be taken into consideration in the discussion section of the paper.  Please see.. Beunen et al., 1997 (Leuven study); Amsterdam growth study (Kemper et al.,  2004; Fredericks, 2005,  Lee et al., 2005,  Birth to twenty study (Richter, et al.,  2007) Gerber et al, 2014, 2021.  

Lines 153-154. Sentence is unclear. Please rephrase for an improved understanding

Results section

Table 2. Maybe consider to add another table that collapse the growth increases into years of average increases eg 10yrs 11 yrs 12 yrs) and not every 6 months as the results are discussed on p 5 as increases per year that can be confusing to the reader.  Also provide a motivation for the different percentiles that the results are reported in as descriptive data. From a practical point when will you use which percentile and why is it neccasary to have these different percentiles reported. Did it show any differences in growth changes when analysed in this manner? 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors performed a mixed longitudinal study to evaluate the height velocity of Greek children and also to estimate the age of onset of AGS, the age and intensity of peak height velocity, and total pubertal growth.

The article has good data quality and also a great discussion of the data obtained.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to review it.

Author Response

We thank the Reviewer for his honouring comments.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I am a satisfied with the changes as suggested to improve the paper. Please see a few corrections that still needs to be taken care of.  

1. Title the word the should be added before adolescents
2. Line 39 the distance had been run? This is not correct wording? rather consider ..the distance of growth in height? Height increments?
3. Line 91 add ….as their meaning is  in the sentence
4. Line 126 Maybe include the year indicated as the PHV year in the sentence after stating after PHV

Author Response

1. Title the word the should be added before adolescents Α: added
2. Line 39 the distance had been run? This is not correct wording? rather consider ..the distance of growth in height? Height increments? A: "height increments" was used instead, as suggested
3. Line 91 add ….as their meaning is  in the sentence A: corrected to "as their meaning is more straightforward"
4. Line 126 Maybe include the year indicated as the PHV year in the sentence after stating after PHV A: modified as suggestedWe thank the R for his valuable and constructive remarks and suggestions