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
In this paper, we will focus to one of the recent applications of PU-algebras in the coding theory, namely the construction of codes by soft sets PU-valued functions. First, we shall introduce the notion of soft sets PU-valued functions on PU-algebra and investigate some of its related properties.Moreover, the codes generated by a soft sets PU-valued function are constructed and several examples are given. Furthermore, example with graphs of binary block code constructed from a soft sets PU-valued function is constructed.
The present research aims at identifying the relationship between intuitive thinking and mental alertness. The researcher used two tools: the intuitive thinking scale built by the researcher and consists of (40) paragraphs fall under four alternatives, while the second tool is the mental alertness scale consists of (70) paragraphs that the researcher built, and was verified psychometric properties of the two scales of honesty After the collection of information and statistical processing, the researcher reached the following results: 1. The results showed that the students of the third stage / Faculty of Education enjoy intuitive thinking. 2. The results showed that the students of the third stage / Faculty of Education enjoy mental alertne
... Show MoreThe closeness of residential neighborhoods to oil refineries and petrochemical plants in these areas has heightened the community’s exposure to dangerous air pollutants. This study aimed to investigate the impact of health literacy upon lung cancer screening beliefs among residents of neighborhood adjacent to a refinery oil.
A cross-sectional study design using nonprobability convenience sampling was applied, employin
In this research, the focus was on estimating the parameters on (min- Gumbel distribution), using the maximum likelihood method and the Bayes method. The genetic algorithmmethod was employed in estimating the parameters of the maximum likelihood method as well as the Bayes method. The comparison was made using the mean error squares (MSE), where the best estimator is the one who has the least mean squared error. It was noted that the best estimator was (BLG_GE).
Abstract
Asthma is a complex disease defined by chronic airway inflammation and airflow limitation causing variable respiratory symptoms which include shortness of breath (SOB), wheezing, chest tightness and cough. Asthma guidelines advocate adding a second long acting bronchodilator to medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) rather using high doses of ICS alone to control moderate to severe persistent asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of three medication regimens indicated for Iraqi patients suffering from persistent asthma.
This study was interventional randomized clinical study conducted on a sample of adult Iraqi asthm
... Show MoreAbstract Asthma is a complex disease defined by chronic airway inflammation and airflow limitation causing variable respiratory symptoms which include shortness of breath (SOB), wheezing, chest tightness and cough. Asthma guidelines advocate adding a second long acting bronchodilator to medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) rather using high doses of ICS alone to control moderate to severe persistent asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of three medication regimens indicated for Iraqi patients suffering from persistent asthma. This study was interventional randomized clinical study conducted on a sample of adult Iraqi asthmatic patients in Baghdad City. The study com
... Show MoreThe nucleon momentum distributions (NMD) and elastic electron scattering form factors of the ground state for some 1f-2p-shell nuclei, such as 58Ni, 60Ni, 62Ni, and 64Ni
isotopes have been calculated in the framework of the coherent fluctuation model (CFM) and expressed in terms of the weight function lf(x)l2 . The weight function (fluctuation function) has been related to the nucleon density distribution (NDD) of the nuclei and determined from the theory and experiment. The NDD is derived from a simple method based on the use of the single particle wave functions of the harmonic oscillator potential and the occupation numbers of the states. The feature of the l
Background: Antibiotic resistance is a problem leading to difficulty in treating microbial infections thatmay occur due to many causes. For the important pharmacist role as a reference for the information and theability to access to medications, they are vital members in lowering the development of antibiotic resistance,and also they support the proper use and control of antibioticsmisuse. Our goal is comparing the knowledge,attitude, practice of undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students and their perceptions about thecausing factors of antibiotic resistance in Iraq.Method: A cross sectional study was conducted involving the final year bachelor and postgraduate (masterand Philosophical doctor) students from different private
... Show MoreConcentrations 25, 50 and 100 mg of nano-capsules linolenic acid and non-capsulated fatty acid for 1kg of Milk was used for yogurt manufacture. The results showed no significant differences in the ratio of titration acidity and pH values between all processed treatments at the beginning and during of period storage. The treatments was added to it coated omega-3 by nano method were the least exposed to the oxidation process from the non-capsules omega-3, And for shield of The poly lactic acid had a significant role in the protection of alpha-linolenic acid against lipolysis by the formation of a protective layer to protect the acid from the activity of lipases enzymes, and the addition of fatty acid linolenic to milk was determined the gr
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