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
Abstract
The scope of the humanitarian tragedies in the Arab region has widened after the conflicts that erupted over the past years, exacerbation to include educational, cultural, and social dimensions, economic and moral aspects of the displaced families, especially after the emergence of terrorist organizations and sectarian conflicts which overthrew human and led to various political and demographic changes, forcing citizens to leave their homes, fleeing with their families from the danger of murder, terrorism, and violation to other safer areas inside or outside their countries. Women and children were the vast majority of the displaced who were subjected to great pressures, The host communities bore the pro
... Show MoreThis research shows the issues of Ibn Hisham's illusion in its leadership of the grammarians; As Ibn Hisham attributed - during his presentation of grammatical issues - grammatical opinions to a number of grammarians claiming them in them, and after referring to the main concepts that pertain to those grammarians, we found that Ibn Hisham had delusional in those allegations, in addition to that clarifying the terms illusion and claim in the two circles of language And the terminology, and perhaps the most prominent result in this research is that he worked to investigate these issues by referring to their original sources, with an explanation of the illusions of Ibn Hisham in his attribution to these issues.
The term ‘photometry’ refers to the accurate determination of the apparent brightness of an astronomical object. Until roughly 1980, nearly all astronomical photometry was done by means of analog measurements of photographic plates, or by analog or digital (photon-counting) techniques with photomultipliers. These photometers produced brightness readings which were typically displayed on dials, plotted on strip charts or printed on strips of paper, and it was often quite practical to analyse these raw data with pencil, paper and a slide rule or table of logarithms. However, during the late 1970s electronic area detectors for astronomy became more advanced: first, for a brief period, television-type cameras were employed, but these were s
... Show MoreThis paper includes the application of Queuing theory with of Particle swarm algorithm or is called (Intelligence swarm) to solve the problem of The queues and developed for General commission for taxes /branch Karkh center in the service stage of the Department of calculators composed of six employees , and it was chosen queuing model is a single-service channel M / M / 1 according to the nature of the circuit work mentioned above and it will be divided according to the letters system for each employee, and it was composed of data collection times (arrival time , service time, departure time)
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Hypothyroidism is a condition in which thyroid hormones levels decreased in the blood. These hormones are necessary for energy production and body viability. In many occasions this condition is accompanied or followed by different metabolic disorders. The current study is conducted in the "Specialized center for endocrinology and diabetes" and carried on 70 hypothyroid patients and 60 randomly chosen individuals with normal thyroid function .Both groups were submitted to laboratory tests to evaluate thyroid function (T3,T4.TSH). The study involved evaluation of the relationship between hypothyroidism and insulin resistance (IR) . Health problem related to many diseases , became common lately. Insulin resistance diagnosed through
... Show MoreGymnastics play from sports games that need to use appropriate methods and strategies that address mental abilities and that let the learner create and think about better performance with the supervision and guidance of the teacher. The researcher has chosen meditative thinking, which is a kind of thinking that needs to be taken care of. It is thinking about the situation in front of the individual, analysing it to his elements and drawing up plans that need to be understood with a view to reaching the results required by the situation and evaluating the results in the light of the plans. The analysis of the situation looks to different elements and look for internal relationships between these elements in this case. The problem is that fem
... Show MoreThis paper shews how to estimate the parameter of generalized exponential Rayleigh (GER) distribution by three estimation methods. The first one is maximum likelihood estimator method the second one is moment employing estimation method (MEM), the third one is rank set sampling estimator method (RSSEM)The simulation technique is used for all these estimation methods to find the parameters for generalized exponential Rayleigh distribution. Finally using the mean squares error criterion to compare between these estimation methods to find which of these methods are best to the others
Abstract Planetary nebulae (PN) represents the short phase in the life of stars with masses (0.89-7) M☉. Several physical processes taking place during the red giant phase of low and intermediates-mass stars. These processes include :1) The regular (early ) wind and the envelope ejection, 2) The thermal pulses during Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB ) phase. In this paper it is briefly discussed how such processes affect the mass range of Planetary Nebulae(PN) nuclei(core) and their evolution, and the PN life time, and fading time for the masses which adopted. The Synthetic model is adopted. The envelope mass of star (MeN ) and transition time (ttr) calculated respectively for the parameter (MeR =1.5,2, 3×10-3 M☉). Another time scale is o
... Show MoreProductivity estimating of ready mixed concrete batch plant is an essential tool for the successful completion of the construction process. It is defined as the output of the system per unit of time. Usually, the actual productivity values of construction equipment in the site are not consistent with the nominal ones. Therefore, it is necessary to make a comprehensive evaluation of the nominal productivity of equipment concerning the effected factors and then re-evaluate them according to the actual values.
In this paper, the forecasting system was employed is an Artificial Intelligence technique (AI). It is represented by Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to establish the predicted model to estimate wet ready mixe
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