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
Background: The posterior slope of the articular eminence of completely edentulous patients compared to patients with maintained occlusion shows significant flattening. This study aimed to correlate between the flattening of the posterior slope of the articular eminence, with dental status, age, genders, on both sides using computed tomography. Materials and Methods: The sample of the present study was a total of 117 Iraqi subjects, who admitted to the maxillofacial department at Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital in Al-Najaf city. The examination was performed on CT scanner; the eminence inclination was measured in two methods using sagittal section. Results: Clinically, the inclination of articular eminence was higher in edentulous subjects than i
... Show MoreIn this research, we dealt with the study of the Non-Homogeneous Poisson process, which is one of the most important statistical issues that have a role in scientific development as it is related to accidents that occur in reality, which are modeled according to Poisson’s operations, because the occurrence of this accident is related to time, whether with the change of time or its stability. In our research, this clarifies the Non-Homogeneous hemispheric process and the use of one of these models of processes, which is an exponentiated - Weibull model that contains three parameters (α, β, σ) as a function to estimate the time rate of occurrence of earthquakes in Erbil Governorate, as the governorate is adjacent to two countr
... Show MoreObjective: The study aim is to identify factors that may contribute to children’s weight status variations. Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study is carried out has been conducted at the AL- Samawah city in Primary Health Care Centers for the purpose of the screening children’s weight status of Age One to five Years Old. This study is started from December 16th 2018 to February 14th 2019. A(non propriety) purposive sample comprised of (20) primary health centers (10 main and 10 sub) are selected of 500 children who visit the primary health care center during the period for the purpose of the study; Data was collected through using a questionnaire designed and developed for the purpose of the study . It consists of two main
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The aim of the present study is to highlight the role of total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), Glycated hemoglobin A1c and iron in Iraqi women with multiple sclerosis and also to examine the biochemical action of copaxone (which is the most widely used in the 21st century to treat multiple sclerosis) on these biochemical parameters. This is the first study in Iraq which deals copaxone action on TC , TG , HbA1c and iron. Ninety women in their fourth decade suffering from multiple sclerosis were enrolled in this study. They were divided into: the first (group B) composed of (30) women without any treatment related to multiple sclerosis or any treatment linked with chronic or inflammatory diseases. The second (group A1) included (30)
... Show MoreThis study aimed to identify the role of servant leadership in promoting organizational citizenship behaviors in a sample of faculties of the University of Alqadisiya .It tried to answer several questions represented its problem.
The most important questions are the followings:
1- Is there enough perception among administrative leaders in the aforementioned faculties toward the concept of servant leadership? And under what level? &
... Show MoreVarious simple and complicated models have been utilized to simulate the stress-strain behavior of the soil. These models are used in Finite Element Modeling (FEM) for geotechnical engineering applications and analysis of dynamic soil-structure interaction problems. These models either can't adequately describe some features, such as the strain-softening of dense sand, or they require several parameters that are difficult to gather by conventional laboratory testing. Furthermore, soils are not completely linearly elastic and perfectly plastic for the whole range of loads. Soil behavior is quite difficult to comprehend and exhibits a variety of behaviors under various circumstances. As a result, a more realistic constitutive model is
... Show MoreIn this paper, the maximum likelihood estimates for parameter ( ) of two parameter's Weibull are studied, as well as white estimators and (Bain & Antle) estimators, also Bayes estimator for scale parameter ( ), the simulation procedures are used to find the estimators and comparing between them using MSE. Also the application is done on the data for 20 patients suffering from a headache disease.