Objectives: The study objectives were to evaluate customer satisfaction with community pharmacy services and measure the relationships between customer satisfaction and pharmacy/pharmacist characteristics and customer quality of life. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of customers at 20 community pharmacies in 10 different geographical areas in Baghdad city between May and September 2018. We used the satisfaction items which were developed by Paterson and colleagues in 2013. The survey also assessed customer quality of life (QoL) with 12 QoL items. Results: The study recruited 400 pharmacy customers. Overall, customers reported good satisfaction with community pharmacy services. The most three satisfying aspects were the professional appearance of the pharmacy, the professionalism of pharmacy staff and explanations of possible adverse medication effects. Three customer characteristics were associated with high satisfaction rates including male gender, buying medications without a prescription, and seeking services for themselves. Three pharmacy characteristics increased the customer satisfaction rate including the availability of female pharmacists, having more than one pharmacist, and whether the pharmacy is open full time. For quality of life, patients who had a limitation in their activities and those who accomplished less than they would like were less satisfied with pharmacy services. Conclusions: To improve pharmacy services, pharmacists need to enhance their professional appearance, allocate more time for patient counselling, help patients to manage their medications and extend their working hours to meet customer needs. Article Type: Original Research
Given the paucity and toxicity of available drugs for leishmaniasis, coupled with the advent of drug resistance, the discovery of new therapies for this neglected tropical disease is recognised as being of the utmost urgency. As such antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been proposed as promising compounds against the causative Leishmania species, insect vector-borne protozoan parasites. Here the AMP temporins A, B and 1Sa have been synthesised and screened for activity against Leishmania mexicana insect stage promastigotes and mammalian stage amastigotes, a significant cause of human cutaneous disease. In contrast to previous studies with other species the activity of these AMPs against L. mexicana amastigotes was low. This suggests that ama
... Show MoreForty six Iraqi women with PCOS were involved in this study . They were treated with metformin alone and with antioxidant agents (vitamin E or C).It was found that all patients who treated with metformin or with combination of metformin with antioxidant agents showed significant decrease in hirsutism score. The treatment of metformin with antioxidant agents is of great benefit in treatment of hirsutism in PCOS due to that there was no worsening effect after treatment. This may indicate that antioxidant agents may participate in alleviation of hirsutism so it can be said that oxidative stress may play an important role in developing of hirsutism in PCOS.
Osteoblast and osteoclast activity is disrupted in post-menopausal osteoporosis. Thus, to fully address this imbalance, therapies should reduce bone resorption and promote bone formation. Dietary factors such as phyto-oestrogens and Zn have beneficial effects on osteoblast and osteoclast activity. However, the effect of combinations of these factors has not been widely studied. We therefore examined the effect of coumestrol, daidzein and genistein in the presence or absence of zinc sulphate (Zn) on osteoclast and osteoblast activity. Osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption were significantly reduced by coumestrol (10- 7 m), daidzein (10- 5 m) and genistein (10- 7 m); and this direct anti-osteoclastic action was unaffected by Zn (10-
... Show MoreBackground: Interleukine-2 is a multifunctional cytokine, considered a central regulator of host resistance against a variety of pathogens and has been recently demonstrated to exert an active role in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of scaling and root planning on level of IL-2 in serum and saliva of patients with chronic generalized periodontitis, in relation to clinical parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 subjects were enrolled, of which 25 had chronic generalized periodontitis and 25 periodontally healthy subjects as control. The clinical parameters included: gingival index, pocket probing depth, clinical attachment level and bleeding on probing. The level of
... Show MoreThis paper studies the behavior of axially loaded RC columns which are confined with carbon fiber reinforced polymers’ sheet (CFRP) and steel jackets (SJ). The study is based on twelve axially loaded RC columns tested up to failure. It is divided into three schemes based on its strengthening type; each scheme has four columns. The main parameters in this study were the compressive strength of the concrete and steel reinforcement ratio. Furthermore, the results of the experimental test showed a substantial enhancement in the column's load-carrying capacity. When compared to the original columns, the CFRP sheet had a significant effect on improving the ductility of the column by increasing the axial deformation by about 59.2 to 95.7
... Show MoreObjectives: to compare health of mothers and neonatal among age groups, to find out the correlation between
age groups and mother and neonatal health.
Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at delivery rooms of three teaching hospitals in Baghdad city
from Feb. 28th through May. 28th
, 2013. A purposive (non-probability) sample of 300 laboring women was selected
from delivery rooms categorized into three groups, group 1 (≤19) years, group 2 their age between (20-35) years
old and group 3 their age (≥35) years. The data were collected through the use of constructing questionnaire, an
interview technique with mothers and reviewing their medical records as means of data collection; The
questionnaire con
This study aims to employ modern spatial simulation models to predict the future growth of Al-Najaf city for the year 2036 by studying the change in land use for the time period (1986-2016) because of its importance in shaping future policy for the planning process and decision-making process and ensuring a sustainable urban future, using Geographical information software programs and remote sensing (GIS, IDRISI Selva) as they are appropriate tools for exploring spatial temporal changes from the local level to the global scale. The application of the Markov chain model, which is a popular model that calculates the probability of future change based on the past, and the Cellular Automa
In recent years, observed focus greatly on gold nanoparticles synthesis due to its unique properties and tremendous applicability. In most of these researches, the citrate reduction method has been adopted. The aim of this study was to prepare and optimize monodisperse ultrafine particles by addition of reducing agent to gold salt, as a result of seed mediated growth mechanism. In this research, gold nanoparticles suspension (G) was prepared by traditional standard Turkevich method and optimized by studying different variables such as reactants concentrations, preparation temperature and stirring rate on controlling size and uniformity of nanoparticles through preparing twenty formulas (G1-G20). Subsequently, the selected formula that pr
... Show MoreBackground: Whey protein is the green-yellow colored, liquid portion of the milk, and it is also called the cheese serum, it is obtained after the separation of curd, during the coagulation of the milk. It contains a considerable amount of α-helix pattern with an evenly distributed hydrophobic and hydrophilic as well as basic and acidic amino acids along with their polypeptide chain. The major whey protein constituents include β-lactoglobulin (β-LG),α-lactalbumin (α-LA), immunoglobulins (IG), bovine serum albumin (BSA), bovine lactoperoxidase (LP), bovine lactoferrin (BLF) and minor amounts of a glycol macro peptide (GMP). Osseointegration can be defined as a process that is immune driven which leads to the formatio
... Show More