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
Iraqi economy has grown rapidly. Iraqi citizen, therefore, should be very much involved with the comprehensive development after his long patience. Such development should begin with him and his family to get the housing commodity, which is indeed not a cheap one.
In this regard, the Iraqi legislator drew attention to the necessity of issuing housing finan
... Show MoreIn gene regulation, transcription factors (TFs) play a key function. It transmits genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA during the process of DNA transcription. During this step, the transcription factor binds to a segment of the DNA sequence known as Transcription Factor Binding Sites (TFBS). The goal of this study is to build a model that predicts whether or not a DNA binding site attaches to a certain transcription factor (TF). TFs are regulatory molecules that bind to particular sequence motifs in the gene to induce or restrict targeted gene transcription. Two classification methods will be used, which are support vector machine (SVM) and kernel logistic regression (KLR). Moreover, the KLR algorithm depends on another regress
... Show MoreThe main goal of this research is to determine the impact of some variables that we believe that they are important to cause renal failuredisease by using logistic regression approach.The study includes eight explanatory variables and the response variable represented by (Infected,uninfected).The statistical program SPSS is used to proform the required calculations
In this study light elements 10B , 10Be for 10B(n,p)10Be reaction as well as proton energy from 0.987 MeV to 2.028 MeV with threshold energy (1.04MeV) are used according to the available data of reaction cross sections. The more recent cross sections data of 10Be(p,n)10B reaction is reproduced in fin steps in the specified energy range , as well as cross section (p,n) values were derived from the published data of (n,p) as a function of energy in the same fine energy steps by using the reciprocity theory of principle inverse reaction . This calculation involves only the first excited state of 10B , 10Be in the reactions 10Be(p,n)10B and 10B(n,p)10Be.
The aim of the current study was to evaluate the knowledge and perception of the fifth stage pharmacy students (college of pharmacy/ University of Baghdad /Iraq) regarding generic medicines. This study is a cross-sectional study carried in a college of pharmacy /University of Baghdad during the period from (November 2018- March 2019). The number of students included in the current study was 168 undergraduate stager pharmacists. A questionnaire was used to collect data of the study. Nearly 86% of the students said that they had heard of generic and brand medicines, and pharmacy was the main source of knowledge regarding generic medicines (66.7%). About (33.3%) of the respondents agreed that generic medicines are bioequivalent to br
... Show MoreThis study aims to identify the degree of students of Princess Rahma University College owning e-learning skills related to MOODLE as they perceived in the of light Corona crisis. The researchers' questionnaire consisted of (37) items, distributed in three areas of e-learning skills related to the MOODLE on (147) students were chosen randomly. The results of the study showed that the degree of students 'possession of e-learning skills related to the MOODLE was significant. The results also revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the degree of students' possession of electronic learning skills related to the MOODLE due to sex in favor of females. Finally, there were no statistically significant differences in the
... Show MoreThe Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE) version of the random matrix theory (RMT) has been used to study the level density following up the proton interaction with 44Ca, 48Ti and 56Fe.
A promising analysis method has been implemented based on the available data of the resonance spacing, where widths are associated with Porter Thomas distribution. The calculated level density for the compound nuclei 45Sc,49Vand 57Co shows a parity and spin dependence, where for Sc a discrepancy in level density distinguished from this analysis probably due to the spin misassignment .The present results show an acceptable agreement with the combinatorial method of level density.
... Show MoreBackground: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer worldwide with 1.80 million new
cases and 862,000 deaths in 2018. Depending on the stage, upfront surgery is the main form of treatment,
followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Many drugs were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
for the treatment of CRC, one of which is Capecitabine. During cancer treatment, patient-reported symptoms
and quality of life parameters can provide additional information to evaluate and compare the efficacy and
toxicity of the treatments. Despite the importance of this issue, there is no published data that evaluates this
vital parameter in Iraqi patients receiving anti-cancer drugs, in general,