Introduction: Although it is discouraged, community pharmacy customers can obtain oral corticosteroids (OCSs) without prescriptions from some community pharmacies in Iraq. Medication abuse is defined as the use of medication for non-medical reasons. Objectives: The study aimed to determine demographics, beliefs, and perceptions associated with the abuse of oral corticosteroids for non-illness reasons among community pharmacy customers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in fall 2018 in four provinces in Iraq. Customers of 19 community pharmacies asking for OCSs for themselves without a prescription were administered a paper survey. This study used the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to measure the relationship between the motivational factors and the abuse of OCSs. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationships between the use of OCSs for non-illness and six TRA factors: Normative belief, behavioral belief, evaluation of the behavior, motivation to comply, subjective norms and attitude toward behavior. Results: The study enrolled 141 participants (98 women and 43 men) taking asking for OCSs without prescription. Dexamethasone was the most commonly used OCSs (59.6%). Friends were the primary recommenders for corticosteroids abuse (28.4%). The main reasons for using OCSs were to increase appetite and gain weight (53.9 %). Approximately one-third (36.2 %) of the participants gained weight after using OCSs. The regression analysis of the TRA variables showed two factors were significantly related to the abuse of OCSs. Age had a significant inverse relationship with the abuse of OCSs and the "good appearance" belief had a significant positive association with OCS abuse. Conclusion: Some Iraqi community pharmacy customers use non-prescribed oral corticosteroids to increase appetite and gain weight. Improve body appearance represents the dominant incentive that urges people to use OCSs without prescription. Health officials and healthcare practitioners need to promote people's awareness about the risks of misusing OCSs through education programs and advertisements in public health settings, media, and social media. Article Type: Original Research
Background: Acetabular retroversion has been proposed to contribute to the development of pain and osteoarthritis of the hip. Conventional anteroposterir (AP) pelvic radiographs may represent a reliable, easily available diagnostic modality.
Objective: To obtained a reproducible technique allowing the anterior and posterior acetabular rims to be visible for assessment
Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted from December 2015 to March 2017 targeting patients with hip pain in orthopedic clinic of Al-Kindy teaching hospital. The study sample consisted of 100 patients with hip pain who were investigated with Antroposterior pelvic plain x-ray, which was done for all
... Show MoreBreast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant tumor in women and the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. This work was conducted to estimate the roles of oxidative stress, vitamin B12, homocysteine (HCY), and DNA methylation in BC disease progression. Sixty BC patients (age range 33–80 years) and 30 healthy controls were recruited for this study. Patients with BC were split to group 1 consisted of stage II BC women (low level), and group 2 consisted of patients in stages III and IV (high level). Malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3), HCY, and vitamin B12 levels in the study groups were measured. Also, the 5-methylcytosine (5mC) global DNA methylation levels were evaluated. The results showed a significant
... Show MoreWe need to know the basic facts concerning planning top and bottom limits including any critical levels or the threshold over which the cost would be much higher for land development. Therefore this paper concerned with Baghdad Municipality decision No.2/1004 dated 7/12/2004. The reason behind this decision is the hope to face up at least in the severe housing crisis in the city of Baghdad. This paper attempts to know the attitude of the local community in the general through a field study of people living near such dwelling where third floors are added of. This might indicate any positive or negative effects whether on short or long-term including its effect on the theoretical side including the population growth of Baghdad, the
... Show MoreBackground: The present study was carried out to compare shear bond strength of sapphire bracket bonded to zirconium surface after using different methods of surface conditioning and assessment of the adhesive remnant index. Materials and methods: The sample composed of 40 zirconium specimens divided into four groups; the first group was the control, the second group was conditioned by sandblast with aluminum oxide particle 50 μm, the third and fourth group was treated by (Nd: YAG) laser (1064nm)(0.888 Watt for 5 seconds) for the 1st laser group and (0.444 Watt for 10 seconds) for the 2nd laser group. All samples were coated by z-prime plus primer. A central incisor sapphire bracket was bonded to all samples with light cure adhesive res
... Show MoreMultiplicative inverse in GF (2 m ) is a complex step in some important application such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and other applications. It operates by multiplying and squaring operation depending on the number of bits (m) in the field GF (2 m ). In this paper, a fast method is suggested to find inversion in GF (2 m ) using FPGA by reducing the number of multiplication operations in the Fermat's Theorem and transferring the squaring into a fast method to find exponentiation to (2 k ). In the proposed algorithm, the multiplicative inverse in GF(2 m ) is achieved by number of multiplications depending on log 2 (m) and each exponentiation is operates in a single clock cycle by generating a reduction matrix for high power of two ex
... Show MoreAims: The present study aims at assessing mothers’ knowledge of breastfeeding in Kirkuk governorate,
besides determining the relationship between mothers’ knowledge and some of their demographic
attributes.
Methodolgy: A descriptive study was used the assessment approach and applied on mothers in Kirkuk
governorate from January 15th 2011 to July 25th
, 2011. Non-probability sampling a convenience sample of
(72) mothers, attending pediatric general hospital in Kirkuk governorate for following up the health status
of their children, was selected for the purpose of the study. A questionnaire was developed for the
purpose of the study. It was comprised of two parts; the first part includes the mothers' demographic
backround: job satisfaction greatly determines the productivity and efficiency of human resorces for health job satisfaction in said to be linked with employees work environment
job resposibilties and time pressure among various health professionals
Abstract To estimate the seroprevalence of HCV infection among HIV-infected haemophiliacs and to demonstrate the most prevalent HCV genotype, 47 HIV-infected haemophilia patients were screened for anti-HCV antibodies. By performing polymerase chain reaction and DNA enzyme immunoassay, HCV-RNA was detected with subsequent genotyping. Seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibodies was 66.0%. Of 31 HCV/HIV co-infected patients, 21 (67.7%) had no history of blood transfusion. We detected 4 HCV genotypes: 1a, 1b, 4 and 4 mixed with 3a, HCV-1b being the most frequent. Contaminated factor VIII (clotting factor) could be responsible for disease acquisition.