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
The objective of this research is employ the special cases of function trapezoid in the composition of fuzzy sets to make decision within the framework of the theory of games traditional to determine the best strategy for the mobile phone networks in the province of Baghdad and Basra, has been the adoption of different periods of the functions belonging to see the change happening in the matrix matches and the impact that the strategies and decision-making available to each player and the impact on societ
... Show MoreProvisions related to nails in Islamic Fiqh
This paper introduces a relation between resultant and the Jacobian determinant
by generalizing Sakkalis theorem from two polynomials in two variables to the case of (n) polynomials in (n) variables. This leads us to study the results of the type: , and use this relation to attack the Jacobian problem. The last section shows our contribution to proving the conjecture.
With the increasing prevalence of breast cancer among female internationally, occupies about 25% of all cases of cancer, with a measured 1.57 million up to date cases in 2012. Breast cancer has turn a most warning to health of female in Iraq, where it is the major cause of death among women after cardiovascular diseases, with a mortality rate of 23% related cancer. Recently there is a crucial requirement to include community pharmacists in health elevation activities to support awareness and early diagnosis of cancer, specially breast cancer. The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude and perceived barriers amongst Iraqi community pharmacists towards health promotion of breast cancer. This study is cross sectional research. A
... Show MoreBack ground: Dental caries and periodontal disease followed by enamel defect were the most common and widely spread diseases affecting children. Aim of this study is the assessment of the occurrence and severity of dental caries, dental plaque, gingivitis and enamel anomalies among 4-5 years old children in Karbala city-Iraq. Materials and methods: A sample of 658 children (350 males, 308 females) aged four and five years old was selected randomly from the fourteenth kindergartens in Karbala city. Diagnosis and recording of dental caries and enamel anomalies were followed the criteria of WHO 1987, WHO1997 respectively. Dental plaque was assessed using plaque index of Silness and Loe,1964. Gingival health condition was assessed using gingiv
... Show MoreBackground: Halitosis represents a common dental condition, although sufferers are often not conscious of it. It is common among humans around the world and is usually caused by an accumulation of bacteria in the mouth as a result of gum disease, food, or plaque. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of oral hygiene practices, smoking habits and halitosis among undergraduate dental students and correlate the oral hygiene practices, oral health conditions to the prevalence of self perceived oral malodor. Materials and Methods: Clinical examination of 250 dental students and a self-administered questionnaire were included in this study. A questionnaire was developed to assess the self-reported perception of oral breath, awareness of b
... Show MoreThe study aimed to evaluate educational programs efficiency in applying the best educational practices to educate students from the dangers of indecent behaviors, in line with higher education policy and the appropriateness of educational program dimensions to spread awareness among students to not fall into the indecent behaviors clutches. The study adopted the inductive exploratory approach through structural equation modeling and the descriptive analysis of the collected data from randomly selected sample (n=385) from educational academics at Northern Border University in the Saudi Arabia using a specially designed survey tool to meet study purposes to evaluate dimensions of teaching methods, evaluation tools, training courses, course
... Show MoreBackground: Breast cancer is the commonest type of malignancy worldwide and in Iraq. It is a serious disease that affects the general health and cause systemic changes that affect the physical and chemical properties of saliva leading to adverse effects on oral health. This study was conducted toassess the tumor marker CA15-3 and selected elements in saliva and their relation to oral health status among breast cancer patients compared to control group. Materials and Methods: The total sample consisted of 60 women aged 35-45 years. 30 women were newly diagnosed with breast cancer before taking any treatment and surgery (study group) and 30 women without clinical signs and symptoms of breast cancer as a control group. Dental caries was record
... Show MoreClimate change, together with terrorism, economic depressions, and mass-destructive weaponry, is a source of international phobia for many people. The advancement in technology increases the competition among world powers and economic systems to develop their industrial enterprises. The smoke that emits from the factories, the pollution caused by the industrial projects, the excessive use of green gas result in the increase of global warming and have catastrophic effects on the ecosphere of the planet. Besides, man’s wrong practices even in agricultural matters are exhausting the natural resources of the lands, and they badly affect the ecological diversity and the wellbeing of the humans and non-humans alike. Contemporary feminis
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