Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation that is preventable but not curable. It is associated with persistent symptoms that cause a considerable burden on individual productivity at work, and daily activities, and reduced quality of life, also burdening the healthcare system and society. Objectives: The study aims to measure the burden of COPD on patients in terms of daily activities and work productivity. It also seeks to investigate some inflammatory biomarkers' levels and their correlation with selected outcomes. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated according to the GOLD guidelines at Kirkuk General Hospital's chest and Internal Medicine consultation clinics, and in private internist clinics in Kirkuk City, Iraq between January and April 2023. The Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI-COPD) measured the Burden of COPD. The symptom burden was assessed by the COPD assessment test (CAT). The level of IL-6 monoclonal antibodies was measured via a Roche Cobas 6000 analyzer and TNF-α using the ELISA sandwich technique. All these devices and machines were authorized by the Ministry of Health, Iraq. Results: The mean age was (54.1 ± 8.12) years, 62.5% being males and 37.5% being females; 41.7% were public sector employees, and 39.2% were self-employed. Due to COPD, the overall work loss was (45.9±18.91) days, the mean percentage of absenteeism was (10.9% ± 12.31%), activity impairment was (47.5% ±17.79%) among all patients, presenteeism was (40.8 ± 15.05%,) and COPD-related retirees were 14.2% of the study group. The mean CAT score (19.3±5.63) was high and the most troubling symptom among patients was chest tightness. WPAI-COPD scores were higher in older age and longer disease duration. The levels of biomarkers were above the reference ranges, the mean IL-6 level was (69.4 ± 35.29) pg/ml, and the mean TNF-α was (72.3 ± 22.45) pg/ ml. Conclusions: COPD patients exhibit a disease burden in terms of productivity loss at work and activity impairment that increases with aging and disease duration. COPD patients with low BMI are more prone to a decline in lung functions and to worse symptoms.
The research aims to explain the reality and the roots of the problem financial crisis and its impact on the performance of the Amman Stock Exchange, by testing three hypotheses, the first and the second relates to the performance of the Amman Stock Exchange and its sectors before and after the financial crisis. And the third examined the relationship between indirect foreign investment and the performance of Amman Stock Exchange.
Hypothesis testing results of the first and second pointed to the existence of statistically significant differences for the performance of the stock market in general and in particular their performance for the period before and after the financial crisis. The third hypothesis resu
Women with diabetes in pregnancy (type 1, type 2 and gestational) are at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes which also include infant development of congenital heart disease and even fetal death. Adequate glycemic control before and during pregnancy is crucial to improve outcome
This research seeks to identify the dimensions of the development of staff performance (training ', incentives, management skills) and its impact on the settlement of compensatory claims adopted in the current research in the Iraqi insurance company،This research aims to highlight the role of developing insurance company’s workers’ performance in settling insurance compensation, and to check this process, the research was applied in the general Iraqi insurance company as it considered as the research community, and a sample was taken from this community that represented by company’s insurance department workers or by collecting actual data that is related to the research’s sample, in addition to the financial compensation data.<
... Show MoreThe present research aims to present a theoretical framework for the application of takaful insurance in Iraq, as well as to identify the level of impact on the development of insurance services in the Iraqi market, and to make recommendations and suggestions that lead to increased interest in this area, and thus contribute to the development and integration of insurance service in the Iraqi market,
The research adopted the descriptive analytical method, and the questionnaire was used to survey the opinions of the research sample consisting of department managers and their assistants and some employees of the graduate degrees in addition to employees of the departments of electronic calculator in the Iraqi insurance sector, and t
... Show MoreSurvival analysis is one of the types of data analysis that describes the time period until the occurrence of an event of interest such as death or other events of importance in determining what will happen to the phenomenon studied. There may be more than one endpoint for the event, in which case it is called Competing risks. The purpose of this research is to apply the dynamic approach in the analysis of discrete survival time in order to estimate the effect of covariates over time, as well as modeling the nonlinear relationship between the covariates and the discrete hazard function through the use of the multinomial logistic model and the multivariate Cox model. For the purpose of conducting the estimation process for both the discrete
... Show MoreThe study showed flow rates and the interaction between the settlements served by applying the model of gravity theory to measure depending on the number of the population between city Najaf and the rest of the other settlements served and using three functions of disability, time and cost, as recorded an increase in the interaction index with some settlements like them Kufa, Abbasid and Manathira, while the indicator contrast was in other settlements, either when the application of the gravity model depending on trips and socio-economic characteristics accuracy rate was more pronounced.
The Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is one of the most influential elements in the Iraqi national security since 2014. It has a new and effective role in the Iraqi political arena, as a result of participating in combat operations against ISIS in Nineveh Governorate, which prompted several minorities within the province to sympathize with its presence and its role in particular in Sinjar after ISIS committed the most brutal crimes against the Aizidi minority, Turkey took advantage of the security conditions that Iraq went through after the entry of ISIS into the country to expand its influence in the north, using the pretext of the PKK and the previous agreement between the two countries on border protection. Also, the continued
... Show MoreAllah legislated marriage and made it dwelling, fellowship and mercy between
the two couples, Prophet Moh'd (peace of Allah and blessing be upon him) ordered a
husband to look after his wife, treat her with full charity and make love with here
every kindly. On the other hand, he ordered a wife to obey her husband and respect
him deeply, nevertheless, some obstacles may sometimes be appeared within the life
of their marriage, this may be caused by either a husband or a wife. This problem is
called lifely disobedience (AL-Noshooz).
In the other words, this means that a wife begins to hate her husband, refuse his orders
and not obey him.
In brief, they hate each other which leads to some marks appear in their
m
The study aims to identify the relationship between forgiveness and social intelligence among elementary school students. The study employed a descriptive analytical approach, whereby a total of (500) elementary school student were selected randomly regarding the variable of gender and economical status. Two scales were prepared: one to measure the forgiveness depending on Albort’s theory that consist of (20) item, and the other to measure the social intelligence according to Tony’s theory which composed of (20) item as well. The result revealed that 6th grade students have interested level of the forgiveness and social intelligence, the girl showed significant differences according to the forgiveness variable, the sample
... Show MoreBackground: Gastroesophageal reflux disease, is a quite prevalent gastrointestinal disease, among which gastric content (excluding the air) returns into the oral cavity. Many 0ral manifestations related t0 this disease include tooth wear, dental caries also changes in salivary flow rate and pH. This study was conducted among gastroesophageal reflux disease patients in order to assess tooth wear in relation to salivary flow rate and pH among these patients and the effect of gastroesophageal reflux disease duration on this relation. Materials and methods: One hundred patients participate in this cross-sectional study for both genders and having an age range of 20-40 years old, patients had been endoscopically identified as having gastroeso
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