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
Recently, environmental noise has arisen from various sources, such as those from exhaust mufflers of combustion engines found in cars, trucks, or power generators, which produce significant noise during their operation. Controlling the radiated noise from these mufflers is a major factor in improving acoustic comfort and minimizing the impact on the surrounding communities. Numerous research has been presented for this reason by modification of the internal structure of the exhaust muffler. The main objective of this work is to reduce the noise level emitted from exhaust mufflers. This can be achieved by adjusting structure parameters to attenuate the surrounding environment's radiated noise. Analysis of pressure-wave propagation h
... Show MoreThe study of the language through the prophetic curriculum in general and the semantics in particular through the books of Professor Abdul Salam Yassin, may God have mercy on him and the most distinctive linguistic phenomena, and then study semantics and the most prominent methods that reveal the emotions dominated by this study to indicate the semantics of religious terms In this research we try to dive into the sea of significance to know the relationship between the words and their connotations, and to monitor aspects of semantic development, although we have left non-essential words in order to avoid lengthening. N or three and sometimes Aguetsarna on one example we thought it was enough to clarify the meaning.
The current research aims to evaluate the appraisal form for Arabic language teachers in light of comprehensive quality standards by designing standards for the competencies of primary school teacher in accordance with comprehensive quality requirements. The researcher adopted the descriptive approach. The research community included the Arabic language supervisors in the Education Directorates of Diyala Provincial and Baghdad. The research sample consisted of (14) supervisors from the Diyala Provincial Department of Education and the First Rusafa Education Directorate in Baghdad Governorate by (8) supervisors and (6) Supervisors respectively specializing in Arabic language. As for the research tool, questionnaire prepared by the researc
... Show MoreBackground: Thyroid ultrasound has been widely used to differentiate benign from malignant nodules; many investigators have tried to point out few ultrasonographic features in order to identify those lesions, which are at a higher risk of malignancy.
Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of selected conventional ultrasound (US) features of thyroid focal lesions useful for predicting malignancy and establishing indications for fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).
Patients and Methods:Two hundred and four consecutive patients with thyroid nodules who visited the outpatient clinic of the surgical department of Tikrit University teaching hospital for the period from January 2011 to April 2014, and who underwent surgery for clinical s
One of the most essential components of asphalt pavements is the filler. It serves two purposes. First, this fine-grained material (diameter less than 0.075 mm) improves the cohesiveness of aggregate with bitumen. Second, produce a dense mixture by filling the voids between the particles. Aluminum dross (AD), which is a by-product of aluminum re-melting, is formed all over the world. This material causes damage to humans and the environment; stockpiling AD in landfills is not the best solution. This research studies the possibility of replacing part of the conventional filler with aluminum dross. Three percent of dross was used, 10, 20, and 30% by filler weight. The MarshallMix design method was adopted to obtain the op
... Show MoreBackground: The purpose of this study was to compare the parametric measurements of transient otoacoustic (TEOAEs) in normal hearing subjects between two clinical centers in Iraq and to examine the community effect on TEOAEs characteristics.
Patients and Methods: Transient otoacoustic emission (TEOAEs) were obtained from eighty subjects (160 ears)-males and females aged (10-20 years), with Forty (40) subjects in Baghdad audiology center and forty subjects in Sulaimania audiology center (North of Iraq)[ Kurdistan-Iraq], in standard, non-linear “Fast Screen” mode. Hearing thresholds, tympanometric, and TEOAE-parameters were recorded between two clinical center groups.
Results: The cross correlation (
This work aims to analyse the dynamic behaviours of the forest pest system. We confirm the forest pest system in plane for limit cycles bifurcating existence from a Hopf bifurcation under certain conditions by using the first Lyapunov coefficient and the second-order of averaging theory. It is shown that all stationary points in this system have Hopf bifurcation points and provide an estimation of the bifurcating limit cycles.
This study aims to determine the exposure of dentists to radiation resulting from the use of light therapy units and to assess their risk and impact on dental clinics. This study was conducted in private dental clinics in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq. Surveys were conducted to collect information about light-curing units. The results were analysed using the multi-response logistic regression to determine the factors affecting the radiation values of light-curing units. The results of the study showed that five major variables have a major effect by radiation. This is shown with a value of P ≤ 0.05. Typical treatment times with radiant light, with a typical number of daily restorations, may exceed the risk limits for
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