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
Piperine, a crystalline alkaloid compound isolated from Piper nigrum, piper longum, and other types of piper, has had many fabulous pharmacological advantages for preventing and treating some specific diseases, such as analgesic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antimetastatic, antithyroid, immunomodulatory, antitumor, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's, and improving the bioavailability of other drugs. However, its potential for clinical use through oral usage is hindered by water solubility and poor bioavailability. The low level of oral bioavailability is caused by low solubility in water and is photosensitive, susceptible to isomerization by UV light, which causes piperine concentration to decrease. Many different
... Show MoreThe research aims to apply a modified SERVQUAL model to evaluate the quality of the educational services via conducting exploratory research for students from the College of Administration and Economics- Department of Business Administration- Evening studies at the University of Baghdad. Questionnaire of two parts was distributed to a sample of (72) students out of (720) students of the 2nd.,3rd. and 4th. year in the beginning of the second semester of the year 2008-2009 to measure the expectations and perceptions to the quality of the educational services. Five major dimensions were analyzed to see the gaps for (22) variables. The study concluded that there were (13) variables confirmed that the
... Show MoreWe have investigated in this research, the contents of the electronic cigarette (Viber) and the emergence of the phenomenon of electronic smoking (vibing) were discussed, although the topic of smoking is one of the oldest topics on which many articles and research have been conducted, electronic smoking has not been studied according to statistical scientific research, we tried in this research to identify the concept of electronic smoking to sample the studied data and to deal with it in a scientific way. This research included conducting a statistical analysis using the factor analysis of a sample taken randomly from some colleges in Bab Al-medium in Baghdad with a size of (70) views where (КМО) and a (bartlett) tests
... Show MoreThe main objective of this research is to study and to introduce a concept of strong fully stable Banach -algebra modules related to an ideal.. Some properties and characterizations of full stability are studied.
The aim of this research was to evaluate the level of ball control in basketball. There was a great weakness in ball control that affected the mastery of many skills that affect the success of the team. The researcher also found a lack in training programs concerning ball control. The researchers used (9) special tests for ball control out of (41) test applied on young basketball players were (86). The researchers concluded that: 1. Criteria were set for test results of ball control. 2. A level of criteria was set for test results of ball control.
Electronic properties including (bond length, energy gap, HOMO, LUMO and density of state) as well as spectroscopic properties such like infrared, Raman scattering, force constant, reduced mass and longitu- dinal optical mode as a function of frequency are based on size and concentration of the molecular and nanostructures of aluminum nitride ALN, boron nitride BN and AlxB7-XN7 as nanotubes has calculated using Ab –initio approximation method dependent on density functional theory and generalized gradient approximation. The geometrical structure are calculated by using Gauss view 05 as a complementary program. Shows the energy gap of ALN, BN and AlxB7-XN7 as a function of the total number of atoms , start from smallest molecule to reached
... Show MoreBackground: The roles of AI in the academic community continue to grow, especially in the enhancement of learning outcomes and the improvement of writing quality and efficiency. Objectives: To explore in depth the experience of senior pharmacy students in using artificial intelligence for academic purposes. Methods: This qualitative study included face-to-face individual interviews with senior pharmacy students from March to May 2023 using a pre-planned interview guide of open-ended questions. All interviews were audio-recorded. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The results were obtained from 15 in-depth face-to-face interviews with senior pharmacy students (5th and 4th years). Eight participants were male, and seven
... Show MoreBackground: The roles of AI in the academic community continue to grow, especially in the enhancement of learning outcomes and the improvement of writing quality and efficiency. Objectives: To explore in depth the experience of senior pharmacy students in using artificial intelligence for academic purposes. Methods: This qualitative study included face-to-face individual interviews with senior pharmacy students from March to May 2023 using a pre-planned interview guide of open-ended questions. All interviews were audio-recorded. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The results were obtained from 15 in-depth face-to-face interviews with senior pharmacy students (5th and 4th years). Eight participants were male, an
... Show MoreKnowledge of the distribution of the rock mechanical properties along the depth of the wells is an important task for many applications related to reservoir geomechanics. Such these applications are wellbore stability analysis, hydraulic fracturing, reservoir compaction and subsidence, sand production, and fault reactivation. A major challenge with determining the rock mechanical properties is that they are not directly measured at the wellbore. They can be only sampled at well location using rock testing. Furthermore, the core analysis provides discrete data measurements for specific depth as well as it is often available only for a few wells in a field of interest. This study presents a methodology to generate synthetic-geomechani
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