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
This study has applied the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphor theory to the analysis of the source and target domains of metaphors that are used in two English nineteenth century sonnets, both written by contemporaneous female poets. The quantitative and qualitative results of the textual analysis have clearly revealed that Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 23 centres around the conceptual mapping of the journey of love and life with that of possession. In contrast, Christina Rossetti’s sonnet Remember tackles the central conceptual mapping of death as a journey in relation to its further experiential connections. In addition, the application of conceptual metaphor theory in identifying the frequencies and densities of metap
... Show MoreTwitter is becoming an increasingly popular platform used by financial analysts to monitor and forecast financial markets. In this paper we investigate the impact of the sentiments expressed in Twitter on the subsequent market movement, specifically the bitcoin exchange rate. This study is divided into two phases, the first phase is sentiment analysis, and the second phase is correlation and regression. We analyzed tweets associated with the Bitcoin in order to determine if the user’s sentiment contained within those tweets reflects the exchange rate of the currency. The sentiment of users over a 2-month period is classified as having a positive or negative sentiment of the digital currency using the proposed CNN-LSTM
... Show MoreSummary
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the Master of the Messengers, Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions.
The circle of taboos in the Jewish Sharia is wider than other laws, as the Jews have severe and very complicated rituals in the matter of food, which may not be found among other people of other religions, as the dietary laws that specify foods and drinks forbidden in the Jewish Sharia include very diverse topics. The Torah specified all these laws with several texts
Background: Medical-surgical nurses are responsible of providing competent care to clients with a wide-array of acute and chronic health problems. This challenging task requires arming nurses with advanced competencies of health literacy to effectively educate their clients. However, evidence about medical-surgical nurse’s health literacy-related knowledge and experience is limited. Purposes: This study aimed to determine the level of the health literacy-related knowledge and experience among medical-surgical nurses.Design: A descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted among a total sample of 177 nurses who were practicing in medical-surgical wards in teaching hospitals in Iraq. A convenience sampling method was used to sele
... Show MoreThe art of batik is one of the ancient arts that has a long history in East Asian countries, especially in Indonesia, where it was considered a traditional craft with which many Indonesian tribes lived. This art began to move to other continents and develops and progresses due to the artist’s connection to the surrounding technological and intellectual development, as art became more outgoing and liberated, it helped the artist to create and innovate in his designs. In this research, he focuses on modern performance methods through which print paintings can be produced through design elements, especially calligraphy, to create aesthetic and creative effects in the productive work. The current research aims to identify the various perfo
... Show MoreThe study aimed to reveal the possibility of predicting academic procrastination through both Cognitive distortions and time management among students of Al-Aqsa Community College, as well as to reveal the level of both cognitive distortions, time management, and academic procrastination. Additionally, it aimed to identify the size of the correlation between cognitive distortions, time management, and academic procrastination. The study sample consisted of (250) students from Al-Aqsa community college students. The results of the study concluded that the mean for each level of cognitive distortions and academic procrastination is average. The mean level of time management is high. There is a statistically significant positive relationshi
... Show MoreBackground: Oral tumors are one of the most challenging
tumors regarding their good prognosis in early diagnosis and
very difficult control in advancing stages.
Objectives: To study the prevalence, types and clinical
presentation of oral tumors in comparison to other oral
lesions among patients attending ENT clinic.
Al-Kindy Col Med J 2008 Vol.5(1) Original Article 11
Methods: This study included 534 patients with different
oral complains attending ENT clinics in AI-Yarmouk
Teaching Hospital, and AI-Kindy Teaching Hospital -
Baghdad, in the period from 1st jan1999 till 31th des 2006 (8
years interval).
Results: The results of this study showed that the prevalence
of malignant lesions was 13.5% (72 o
Constructal theory plays a major role in the conceptual design stage of the structural system in architecture. It provides a conceptual framework for predicting the form depending on natural systems to model those systems geometrically according to the constructal law that works in two directions: the first is towards predicting the general form of the structural system, and the second is the physical application of the law in the process of detailed design of the parts of the system. The aim of this paper is to determine the mechanism adopted in the structural design according to the constructal theory, assuming that the structural design according to the constructal theory achieves