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
Is the subject of the financial structure of the most important topics for which she received the interests of scientific research in the field of financial management , as it emerged several theories about choosing a financial structure appropriate for the facility and behavior change funding them , and in spite of that there is no agreement on a specific theory answer various questions in this regard , and a special issue of the financial structure optimization.
The objective of the research was to identify the most important theories of the structure of modern financial theory has been to focus on the capture of financial firms in two different stages of their life cycle , so-called growth and ma
... 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.
The consumption of dried bananas has increased because they contain essential nutrients. In order to preserve bananas for a longer period, a drying process is carried out, which makes them a light snack that does not spoil quickly. On the other hand, machine learning algorithms can be used to predict the sweetness of dried bananas. The article aimed to study the effect of different drying times (6, 8, and 10 hours) using an air dryer on some physical and chemical characteristics of bananas, including CIE-L*a*b, water content, carbohydrates, and sweetness. Also predicting the sweetness of dried bananas based on the CIE-L*a*b ratios using machine learn- ing algorithms RF, SVM, LDA, KNN, and CART. The results showed that increasing the drying
... 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 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 MoreKetoprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug with analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic effects. It is widely used in the treatment of inflammation and pain associated with rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and in soft tissue injury. The purpose of this study was to prepare an oral disintegrating tablets of ketoprofen by simple method. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method and different ratios of various subliming agents or superdisintegrants were incorporated. Then these tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, weight variation, water absorption ratio, disintegrating time and dissolution time. The results showed that Formula F11 batch had short disint
... Show MoreMicrobial lipases today occupy a place of prominence among biocatalysts owing to their ability to catalyze awide variety of reactions in aqueous and non- aqueous media, A.baumannii were isolated from different clinical specimens from hospitalized patients from Baghdad hospitals and were detected by biochemical tests and API20E system. The percentage of isolation was (16.6%), A. baumannii is an increasingly multidrug – resistant (MDR), it showed high level of resistant to Ceftriaxon, Colistin, Piperacillin, Co-trimoxazol, Tertracycline, Carbenicillin, Amoxicillin, Penicillin G, Gentamicin and Ceftazidim , wherease the isolates were highly sensitive to Imipenem, Ciprofloxacin, Meropenem, Amikacin, and Cefotaxime.
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