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
Empirical and statistical methodologies have been established to acquire accurate permeability identification and reservoir characterization, based on the rock type and reservoir performance. The identification of rock facies is usually done by either using core analysis to visually interpret lithofacies or indirectly based on well-log data. The use of well-log data for traditional facies prediction is characterized by uncertainties and can be time-consuming, particularly when working with large datasets. Thus, Machine Learning can be used to predict patterns more efficiently when applied to large data. Taking into account the electrofacies distribution, this work was conducted to predict permeability for the four wells, FH1, FH2, F
... Show MoreThe past decades of the last century and until now have witnessed many crises in the housing sector, and these crises were the result of many problems that led to a weak quality and quantity of housing stock, especially for lowincome people, and Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals states, "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, and capable of enduring and being sustainable, we have prepared this research that attempts to answer the following question: Is the current empowerment in the housing sector real and efficient support for people with limited income? The research assumes that empowerment in the housing sector has an important and effective role in reducing housing problems, the research aims to reach the most imp
... Show MoreDate palm silver nanoparticles are a green synthesis method used as antibacterial agents. Today,
there is a considerable interest in it because it is safe, nontoxic, low costly and ecofriendly. Biofilm bacteria
existing in marketed local milk is at highly risk on population health and may be life-threatening as most
biofilm-forming bacteria are multidrug resistance. The goal of current study is to eradicate biofilm-forming
bacteria by alternative treatment green synthesis silver nanoparticles. The biofilm formation by bacterial
isolates was detected by Congo red method. The silver nanoparticles were prepared from date palm
(khestawy) fruit extract. The formed nanoparticles were characterized with UV-Vis
Background: The world is in front of two emerging problems being scarceness of virgin re-sources for bioactive materials and the gathering of waste production. Employment of the surplus waste in the mainstream production can resolve these problems. The current study aimed to prepare and characterize a natural composite CaO-SiO2 based bioactive material derived from naturally sustained raw materials. Then deposit this innovative novel bioactive coating composite materials overlying Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia substrate. Mate-rials and method; Hen eggshell-derived calcium carbonate and rice husk-derived silica were extracted from natural resources to prepare the composite coating material. The manufac-tured powder was characterized
... Show MoreThe population of Ephemeroptera was studied in three selected stations of Rawanduz River (Gali Ali Beg water fall, Rawanduz River and after the junction of these two waters) during the three seasons of spring, summer and autumn in 2016. In addition,sixteen physicochemical parameters (pH, EC, turbidity, DO, BOD5, NO3, TDN, TDP, HCO3-, Hardness, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, Na% and SAR) of water in these stations were estimated and used to calculate the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index (CCME WQI). Eleven species of aquatic insects were identified,which belong to four families of th
... Show MoreThe study conducted on the compositions of epiphytic diatoms on three taxa of aquatic plants were selected (Phragmites australis Trin ex stand , Ceratophyllum demersum L. and Typha domengensis Pers) in three sites within Al-Auda Marsh, from autumn 2013 to summer 2014 . The study was measured physical and chemical factors of all the study sites, such as: air temperature, power of hydrogen (pH), electrical conductivity (EC), salinity (S‰), total hardness(TH), dissolved oxygen (DO), and plant nutrient. The results showed that water of marsh was oxygenated and it was very hard. A total of 111 taxa of phytoplankton were identified, which belonged to 13 families and 26 genus (one family and two genus of centric diatoms, 12 families and 26 ge
... Show MoreA series of new aromatic polyesters have been synthesized by polycondensation of different aromatic diols (M1, M2 ,M3) with different dicarboxlic acids (4,4'azo di benzoic acid, malic acid and adipic acid) using dibutyltine dilaurate as catalyst . The preparation of thermally stable polyesters was successfully applied with good yields (60-85%). All polyesters (PE1-PE4) containing aliphatic methylene linkage, and azo group in the main chain. The resulted polymers are readily soluble in aprotic polar solvents , such as (pyridine , CHCl3 , CH2Cl2 , NaOH , H2SO4 , HNO3 , acetone , benzene , DMF , DMSO , THF) without need for heating. Thermal analysis of polyesters by Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) reveals that these aromatic polyesters po
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