FINDINGS: Here, we systematically enhanced the draft genome of S. haematobium using a single-molecule and long-range DNA-sequencing approach. We achieved a major improvement in the accuracy and contiguity of the genome assembly, making it superior or comparable to assemblies for other schistosome species. We transferred curated gene models to this assembly and, using enhanced gene annotation pipelines, inferred a gene set with as many or more complete gene models as those of other well-studied schistosomes. Using conserved, single-copy orthologs, we assessed the phylogenetic position of S. haematobium in relation to other parasitic flatworms for which draft genomes were available.
CONCLUSIONS: We report a substantially enhanced genomic resource that represents a solid foundation for molecular research on S. haematobium and is poised to better underpin population and functional genomic investigations and to accelerate the search for new disease interventions.
AIM: To develop and validate a patient diabetes knowledge questionnaire (PDKQ) to assess knowledge of diabetes mellitus patients.
METHODS: The development of the PDKQ questionnaire involved three phases: item development, content validation, and reliability testing. In the item development phase, the initial draft of the PDKQ, comprising a multiple-choice answer questionnaire was developed. The content validation phase comprised two stages. Firstly, ten experts participated in the expert validation process, followed by face validation involving six patients. In the final phase, test-retest analysis was performed among diabetes mellitus patients to assess reliability.
RESULTS: The first draft of PDKQ consisted of 11 patient characteristics items and 37 items of multiple choices questions. During the expert validation, three items were eliminated due to low clarity, and an additional six items were removed as they were deemed irrelevant or unimportant. During the face validation, three patients' characteristic items and eight multiple-choice questions were excluded due to a content validity index of less than 0.83. In the test-retest phase, 36 subjects responded to 8 items pertaining to patients' characteristics and 20 multiple-choice questions. The test-retest analysis yielded an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.88, indicating good reliability.
CONCLUSION: The 20-item PDKQ is a reliable and robust tool in assessing the knowledge of diabetes mellitus patients in Malaysia. Its implementation allows standardized assessment of diabetic patients' knowledge levels, enabling targeted interventions to empower patients and optimize diabetes care practices.