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
This study investigates the impacts of climate change (CC) on the emergence and proliferation of fungal pathogens, with a particular focus on global food security and the potential of medicinal plants and their by-products as sustainable mitigation strategies. Through a systematic literature review of articles published up to 2024, we analyze how CC exacerbates the spread and severity of fungal diseases in crops, leading to significant agricultural losses and threats to food availability. The findings highlight that, alongside conventional approaches such as genetic resistance and precision farming, bioactive compounds derived from medicinal plants and their by-products offer promising, eco-friendly alternatives for the management of fungal
... Show MoreEconomic analysis plays a pivotal role in managerial decision-making processes. This analysis is predicated on deeply understanding economic forces and market factors influencing corporate strategies and decisions. This paper delves into the role of economic data analysis in managing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make strategic decisions and enhance performance. The study underscores the significance of this approach and its impact on corporate outcomes. The research analyzes annual reports from three companies: Al-Mahfaza for Mobile and Internet Financial Payment and Settlement Services Company Limited, Al-Arab for Electronic Payment Company, and Iraq Electronic Gateway for Financial Services Company. The paper concl
... Show MoreThis paper is submitted as anew approach to simulate manufacturing control & planning system to define the problem of designing control system on the needs for materials.
Production planning & control is a total and complex operation, resides in the essence of manufacturing companies operations. The successful process of production planning and control systems is critical for the staying of manufacturing organizations in markets leading to the increasing consumer competition and which dominate most of manufacturing sectors because of the market oriented economy , thus , what has happened previously , that the companies possessed a great inventory of crude material, components, and groupings and they use in flexible techni
... Show More“Child of today is a man of the future" this slogan is one of the most popular logos of international organizations and institutions that dealing with human beings needs in general and children needs in particular, whether these needs are educational, health, social, or economic. Children require special care and extra legal protection, since the child-raising is not the Child’s own issue, but it's the issue of the society in which he/she would integrate.
As the education and language skillsacquisition primarily associated with hearing, because human being receives most of the skills and knowledge through the hearing; that imitate sounds and learn how to speak isacquired only by hearing, so therefore the hearing - impairedchi
... Show MoreThe compound [K1] was synthesized from the reaction of dichloromethane with linear alkyl benzene (Lab9) using ethanol as a solvent, and from(chloro methyl)-4-nonylbenzene) [K1] it was possible to synthesize the compound Z(4-(nonan-3-yl)phenyl) methane amine) [K2] containing the amine group by synthesized from [K2] reaction with appropriate phenolic aldehydes and using Ethanol as a solvent in the preparation of vinyl chloride4-(((4-nonylbenzyl)imino)methyl)phenol-4-(((4-nonylbenzyl)imino methyl)benzene-1,3diol) [K3-K4] bases has been used. Preparation of a number of Phenolic polymers4-(2- hydroxy-3.5-dimethylbenzyl)-2-methyl-6-(((4-4-(2hyroxy-3, 5-dimethylbenzyl)-2-methyl-6(((4 nonylbenzyl) imino) methyl) benzene-phenolnonylbenzyl) imino) me
... Show MoreCurcumin (Cur) possesses remarkable pharmacological properties, including cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities. However, the utilization of Cur in pharmaceuticals faces constraints owing to its inadequate water solubility and limited bioavailability. To overcome these hurdles, there has been notable focus on exploring innovative formulations, with nanobiotechnology emerging as a promising avenue to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of these complex compounds. We report a novel safe, effective method for improving the incorporation of anticancer curcumin to induce apoptosis by reducing the expression levels of miR20a and miR21. The established
Background: Phytotherapy is the usage of herbal species with medicinal properties for the management of various diseases. Gingivitis and periodontitis are diseases that involve the role of both the bacteria and the host immune response. Over the years, various researches have shown the importance of herbal products in the management of periodontal diseases. Aims of the study: To evaluate the efficacy of locally applied Salvia officinalis gel as adjunctive in the treatment of chronic periodontitis. Subjects and methods: Fourteen patients (10 males and 4 females) with chronic periodontitis were enrolled in the present study with total number of twenty-eight periodontal pockets utilizing a split mouth design, the pockets were divided i
... Show MoreAbstract---The aim of the current research is to identify the level of logical reasoning skills in chemistry students at the Faculty of Education for Pure Sciences/ Ibn Al-Haytham for the academic year (2021-2022). The differences in their level of skills according to the gender variable (males and females) and the academic stages (first- second - third - fourth). The descriptive approach was adopted because it corresponds to the nature of the research objectives. The research sample consisted of (400 )students selected in a relatively random stratified way. The researcher constructed a logical reasoning test, which includes (6) sub-skills , which is (proportional - probabilistic- synthetic- deductive- logic- variable adjustment). The psych
... Show MoreHospitals are part of the service organizations and most importantly at the level of individuals because they are tied to the people health and their daily lives , the nursing service is one of the important services provided by hospitals, and nurses are the human resource that offers this service, from this standpoint the idea of research came to prepare work Scheduling for nurses in a scientific way to improve performance operational for their services and provide efficient service available 24 hours a day, the research use one of the modern and scientific rules of scheduling its “schedule of
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