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
Community detection is useful for better understanding the structure of complex networks. It aids in the extraction of the required information from such networks and has a vital role in different fields that range from healthcare to regional geography, economics, human interactions, and mobility. The method for detecting the structure of communities involves the partitioning of complex networks into groups of nodes, with extensive connections within community and sparse connections with other communities. In the literature, two main measures, namely the Modularity (Q) and Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) have been used for evaluating the validation and quality of the detected community structures. Although many optimization algo
... Show MoreBackground: Helicobacter pylori are important gastrointestinal pathogen associated with gastritis, peptic ulcers, and an increased risk of gastric carcinoma. There are several popular methods for detection of H. pylori (invasive and non-invasive methods) each having its own advantages, disadvantages, and limitations, and by using PCR technique the ability to detect H. pylori in saliva samples offers a potential for an alternative test for detection of this microorganism. Materials and methods: The study sample consists of fifty participants of both genders, who undergo Oesophageo-gastrodudenoscopy at the Gastroenterology Department of Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital Baghdad/ Iraq, during five months period from January 2014 to May 2014. They we
... Show MoreThe study aims to identify the metamemory and perceptual speed among College students, the correlation between metamemory and perceptual speed among College students, and to which extend does metamemory contribute to perceptual speed among College students. The sample consisted of group of students were selected randomly by the researcher from five-different disciplines at the college of education for pure sciences. To collect study data, the researcher utilized two scales: perceptual speed scale that has translated to Arabic language by (Al-Shraqawi, Al- Shaikh, and Nadia Abed Al-Salam (1993). The second scale is metamemory scale (2002) which has translated to Arabic by Abu Ghazal (2007). The results revealed that college students have
... Show MoreThe study aimed to prepare psychological measures of intellectual emptiness and mental distraction on university students. The two researchers used the descriptive approach in the two methods of surveying and correlational relations to suit the nature of the research, where the study sample consisted of (101) students of physical education and sports sciences. The phrase- Intellectual emptiness(35) and (34) is a phrase for mental distraction and presented it to experts in psychology, testing and measurement, and the statistical bag for social sciences (spss) was used, and the results of the research showed that intellectual emptiness has a moral relationship with straying among some students of the College of Physical Education
... Show MoreApplying the constructability concept in the construction industry has proven many benefits in different projects; however, this concept still lacks usage in Iraq. Therefore, it is important to encourage usage of the constructability concept in the construction industry in Iraq. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect constructability in Iraq and then classify them according to their importance. A total of 37 factors were collected from an intensive literature review, and they were classified under the sub and main categories. A survey was undertaken in two sessions with open questionnaire and close questionnaire. The results were analysed and the mean
For many years it was argued that there may be a gender differences in adverse drug reactions (ADRs). This assumption was based on many possible factors such as hormonal or behavior differences, and it was not clearly identified since the female gender was not preferred to be enrolled in many clinical trials. The primary aim of this study was to assess the extent of possibly relevant gender differences in drug–ADRs regarding causality, severity, preventability, seriousness, expectedness and outcome. While the secondary aim was to assess for which group of drugs and for which ADRs gender differences are identified most often. The study was a retrospective one that depends on processing a specially selected group of data obtained from th
... Show MoreThe current research aimed to identify the level of moral identity and social affiliation among students exposed to shock pressures, as well as to reveal the relationship between these variables. To achieve these objectives, the researcher adopted the diagnostic tool for the measure of post-traumatic stress disorder (PDS-5) scale (Foa, 2013) translated to Arabic language by (Imran, 2017). The researcher also adopted the moral identity scale built by (Al-Bayati, 2015) and the measure of social affiliation built by (Al-Jashami, 2013), which were applied to a random sample of (200) male and female students chose from al Anbar University. They were exposed to shock pressures. The results of the research showed that the sample has an average
... Show MoreAbstract Background: The lifestyle of an individual significantly influences health-promoting behaviors. The World Health Organization defines health promotion as a mechanism enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. This study aimed to evaluate the health promoting lifestyle profile of medical staff working in primary health care centers of Al-Rusafa, Baghdad.
The study aimed to evaluating the inhibitory activity of apigenin extracted from Salvia officinalis leaves on the growth of L20B cancer cell in vitro, and through two incubation periods; 48 and 72 hours. Accordingly, eight concentrations (1.56, 3.13, 6.25, 12.5, 25.0, 50.0, 100.0 and 200.0 micromol) of apigenin and similar concentrations of vitamin C and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) were tested. The apigenin revealed its significant inhibitory potentials against the growth of L20B cell line, especially at the low concentrations (1.56, 3.13 and 6.25 micromol) and at 72 incubation period in comparison with vitamin C and CCl4.
The historical center's landscape suffers from neglect, despite their importance and broad capabilities in enhancing the cultural value of the historical center, as landscape includes many heterogeneous human and non-human components, material and immaterial, natural and manufactured, also different historical layers, ancient, modern and contemporary. Due to the difference in these components and layers, it has become difficult for the designer to deal with it. Therefore, the research was directed by following a methodology of actor-network theory as it deals with such a complex system and concerned with an advanced method to connect the various components of considering landscape as a ground that can include various elements and deal wi
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