<p>Manuscript 1444-Article Text-4413-1-4-20200921</p>
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<p>This manuscript aimed at examining differences in alcohol consumption and related problems before and during the pandemic among Argentinians of different genders, age groups, and income levels. This is an original study, and provides valuable results. I have, however, a number of issues/questions that deserve further explanation.</p>
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<p>General</p>
<p>Please, revise some typos as the use of “y” instead of “and” ([…] Tierra del Fuego y Tucumán provinces…), or Brasil instead of Brazil.</p>
<p>I suggest removing the word “only” as it implies a valuative component (“…had only 158 active cases and 3 deaths…”).</p>
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<p>Introduction</p>
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<li>Please, include a reference for the following affirmation: “Because alcohol consumption has been associated with respiratory diseases, such as respiratory distress syndrome or pneumonia”. Also, if possible, also include a citation for the following “Additionally, those with an alcohol use disorder, besides a higher risk of infection due to a depressed immune system could also present underlying high-risk comorbidities”.</li>
<li>Please, briefly explain and, if necessary, also cite the following affirmation: “Even more, they could face extraordinary obstacles to reach or remain abstinent”.</li>
<li>I suggest adding “during the pandemic” in this sentence: Little is known about the possible changes in alcohol consumption “during the pandemic”, since, to our best knowledge very few empirical studies have been conducted.</li>
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<li>Overall, I think the introduction needs to further present previous findings related to the research question. The authors devoted a paragraph to present findings from China and US, yet it would be interesting to see this section more developed. Please, consider the following studies which addressed a similar research question/topic:</li>
<li>Chodkiewicz, J., Talarowska, M., Miniszewska, J., Nawrocka, N., &amp; Bilinski, P. (2020). Alcohol Consumption Reported during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Initial Stage. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(13), 4677. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134677">https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134677</a></li>
<li>Stanton, R., To, Q. G., Khalesi, S., Williams, S. L., Alley, S. J., Thwaite, T. L., Fenning, A. S., &amp; Vandelanotte, C. (2020). Depression, Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19: Associations with Changes in Physical Activity, Sleep, Tobacco and Alcohol Use in Australian Adults. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(11), 4065. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114065">https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114065</a></li>
<li>Wardell, J. D., Kempe, T., Rapinda, K. K., Single, A., Bilevicius, E., Frohlich, J. R., Hendershot, C. S., &amp; Keough, M. T. (2020). Drinking to Cope During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of External and Internal Factors in Coping Motive Pathways to Alcohol Use, Solitary Drinking, and Alcohol Problems. Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 10.1111/acer.14425. Advance online publication. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.14425">https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.14425</a></li>
<li>Dumas, T. M., Ellis, W., &amp; Litt, D. M. (2020). What Does Adolescent Substance Use Look Like During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Examining Changes in Frequency, Social Contexts, and Pandemic-Related Predictors. The Journal of adolescent health: official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 67(3), 354–361. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.06.018">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.06.018</a></li>
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<ul>
<li>It would be informative adding, when describing the aims of the study, some indication of the time frame for “before” and “during” the pandemic. Related to this, I do not understand why the title says “after” the pandemic, which implies that the pandemic is over (which unfortunately is not). I recommend writing “during the pandemic”.</li>
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<p>Sample:</p>
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<li>Please, clarify the ethical procedures followed to collect data from participants aged between 14 and 16 years old. From the description, it follows that the mother/father/a responsible adult was neither informed about the potential participation of the adolescent nor asked to provide their consent.</li>
<li>It is not clear why the “Argentina, 2020” is included in the title of the tables.</li>
<li>It is not clear why the results describing alcohol use before and during the pandemic, which are main aims/results of the study, are presented in Table 1 (that is, before the description of the measures that are presented in this table).</li>
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<p>Materials:</p>
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<li>The following information “In this cross-sectional study we measured alcohol use and related problems in two periods: the three months prior and the three months after, the first confirmed cases in Argentina, and subsequent lockdown” should be presented when describing the aims of the study and/or in the procedure section or, more preferable, in the design section.</li>
<li>Please, revise the writing in the following phrase: “Quantity, Frequency and Heavy Episodic Drinking” à it seems it should be “Quantity and Frequency of usual alcohol use and frequency of Heavy Episodic Drinking”. The authors said that they measured heavy episodic drinking with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification; however, the description included in the manuscript (frequency in which the person had more than 5/4 drinks) differs from how heavy drinking is measured by the AUDIT: please, clarify.</li>
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<li>Please, provide a reference for the definition of the standard unit. Also, I imagine the mg next to 12 is a typo and the authors actually meant “12 grams”.</li>
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<li>If the authors asked questions regarding biological sex, I think that “men/women” are more suitable than “female/male” (which are more suitable for gender, or more common in preclinical than in clinical studies).</li>
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<p>Procedure:</p>
<ul>
<li>Please, indicate the time frame for data collection.</li>
<li>It seems that data was collected sometime after July. Does it mean that participants were asked to “think about their drinking behavior from January to March” and then “from April to June”? Please, clarify this issue. Please, explicitly indicate the instruction preceding the two subsets of questions (before and during the pandemic).</li>
<li>The fact that participants were asked to recall, three months after the initiation of the pandemic, their drinking behaviors three months before the pandemic started is subjected to a number of bias that might have affected their responses. This is a limitation that needs to be addressed. Also, which was the time frame to answer the drinking questions?</li>
<li>Please provide the criteria that was used to segment the groups by age. Also, provide a description of how many participants (i.e., “n =”) were grouped within each age group, gender category, income category and each alcohol-related purchase.</li>
</ul>
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<p>Data Analysis</p>
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<li>Please, indicate the groups (for each independent variable) when performing the group difference analyses.</li>
<li>Please, describe in more detail the statistical analysis (and the results) that led to the decision of using non-parametric statistics.</li>
<li>Please, indicate in this section how effect size was interpretated.</li>
<li>Please, provide more information about how the following analysis was performed “We estimated mean changes in percentages by calculating the percentage in which each participant reduced/increased her/his alcohol use”.</li>
<li>All participants were included in the analysis or only those who reported drinking?</li>
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<p>Results</p>
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<li>I suggest changing the following text “quantity H(df)=50.30(1), p=.001, Cohen’s d=.26, frequency H(df)=8.43(1), p=.004, Cohen’s d=.10, HED H(df)=94.34(1), p=.001, Cohen’s d=.36”. The current text is confusing and difficult to follow.</li>
<li>I suggest including subsections, based on the group comparisons, to facilitate the presentation of the results. In its actual form, it is difficult to understand whether the results concern the total sample, females, males, and so on.</li>
<li>I recommend to explicitly indicate (and interpretate) the effect size of the results.</li>
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