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
Twenty four bacterial isolates were identified from (10) places for wandering sellers in south Baghdad city (Bayaa garage). They were Staphylococcus aureus (9 isolates), Bacillus subtilis (6 isolates), Salmonella spp. (4 isolates) and Psudomonas aeruginosa (5 isolates). Agar well diffusion method was used to definition sensitivity of the fresh and dried juice of Capsicum grossum L. and Allium cepal L. at different concentrations. The fresh juice had no inhibitory activity against the bacterial isolates in contrast to the fresh juice , dried juice which show marked activity against all bacterial isolates at (30) mg/ml.
The question of word–formation motivation is one of the most urgent problems of morphological features of diminutive vocabulary in the languages of different structures, Arabic – Semitic and Russian - Slavic. The relevance of this question lies in the fact that the analysis of morphological elements of word-formation motivation plays an important role not only in identifying formal and semantic connections between different units of the same language, but also has an applied value in the comparative study of different languages. Taking in to account that word-formation motivation is usually considered sequentially in order to identify motivational relationships of this type of vocabulary, we will study motivation in comparative analy
... Show MoreThe current work was designed to investigate serum angiopoietin like protein-8 and hyaluronic acid among Iraqi hemodialysis patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus, and to find relationship between them, as well as if these patients are at risk of kidney fibrosis. Subjects & Methods: in this study, serum samples were obtained from (60) Iraqis patients with end stage renal diseases (ESRD)on hemodialysis (HD) (30 patients with T2DM (G2) and 30 patients withoutT2DM (G3)) in addition to (30) healthy individuals as a control group (G1), their ages ranged from (35-65) years. The patients attended the Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad. Results: the results in this study showed a highly a significant elevation inserum angiopoietin li
... Show MoreBackground: Although mammography is a powerful screening tool in detection of early breast cancer, it is imperfect, particularly for women with dense breast, which have a higher risk to develop cancer and decrease the sensitivity of mammogram, Automated breast ultrasound is a recently introduced ultrasonography technique, developed with the purpose to standardize breast ultrasonography and overcome some limitations of handheld ultrasound, this study aims to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of Automated breast ultrasound and compare it with handheld ultrasound in the detection and characterization of breast lesions in women with dense breasts.
Objectives:<
... Show MoreObjective: To assess knowledge of pregnant women concerning prenatal care who attend primary health care
center in Baghdad city.
Methodology: A descriptive analytic study carried on (100) pregnant women who attend primary health care
centers in Baghdad city (50) of them from Al- Sheik Omer primary health care center \Resafa sector .and 50 from
Belat Al-Shuhadaa/ Al Karch sector, during the period from April to November 2011. The data were collected
through interview and use questionnaire format. Validity and Reliability of the questionnaire were determined
through panel of experts and pilot study, data were analysed through the application of descriptive statistical
analysis and inferential statistical analysis.
R
Specimens have been collected from one hundred and seventeen patients residing in local hospitals, 33 with burns and 84 wound injuries,. Three different methods ,Cefoxitin disk diffusion, EPI-M Screening Kit and Crome agar (MeReSa agar)with selective supplement were used to detect methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) . A comparison was made between these 3 methods according to the results. It was found that the results of the Cefoxitin disk diffusion test were compatible with the results of culturing on Crome agar, while those obtained from the EPI-M Screening kit were not accurate and some of them gave false negative results.
Objective: To identify the effectiveness of instruction oriented intervention for primipara women upon episiotomy and self
perineal care.
Methodology: A quasi-experimental study was carried out to determine the effectiveness of instruction-oriented
intervention for primipara women upon episiotomy and self-perineal care. A purposive "non-probability" sample of (60)
primipara mothers was selected from Ibn AL-Balady Pediatric and Maternity Hospital, Al-russafa, Baghdad. The sample
has been divided into two groups; (30) primipara women who were considered as a study group, and another (30) primipara
women who were considered as a control one. The study group was exposed to an instruction-oriented intervention. While,
the
Objective: impact of the education program for nurses' knowledge toward children under mechanical
ventilation, and to find out the relationships between nurses' knowledge and their general information.
Methodology: Quasi experimental study was carried out at the respiratory care units of Baghdad
Pediatric Teaching Hospitals started from February15th, until September 26th, 2011, A purposive (nonprobability)
sample of (23) nurses working in the respiratory care units, were selected from Children
Welfare and Pediatric Central Teaching Hospitals. The data were gathered through using of the
constructed multiple choice questionnaire using to evaluate the nurses knowledge using checklist, The
questionnaire consists of two p
Epithelial ovarian cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths from gynecological malignancies. Angiogenesis is considered essential for tumor growth and the development of metastases. VEGF and IL?8 are potent angiostimulatory molecules and their expression has been demonstrated in many solid tumors, including ovarian cancer.VEGF and IL-8 concentrations were measured by ELISA test (HumanVEGF,IL-8). Bioassay ELISA/ US Biological / USA).The median VEGF and IL-8 levels were significantly higher in the sera of ovarian cancer patients than in those with benign tumors and in healthy controls.Pretreatment VEGF and IL-8 serum levels might be regarded as an additional tool in the differentiation of ovarian tumors.
CR-39 is a solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) that has been used in many research areas. In spite of the assumption that the CR-39 detectors are insensitive to beta and gamma rays, irradiation with these rays can have significant effects on the detector properties. In this study, beta and gamma rays mass attenuation coefficients μ/ρ (cm2 g-1) for the CR-39 detector have been measured using NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometer along with a standard geometrical arrangement in the energy region of (0.546-2.274) MeV beta rays and standard gamma sources having energy 0.356, 0.5697, 0.6617 and 1.063 MeV. The total atomic cross-section (σtot), total electronic cross-section (σT E) and the effective atomic number (Zeff) of gamma rays a
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