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
General Directorate of Surveying is considered one of the most important sources of maps in Iraq. It produced digital maps for whole Iraq in the last six years. These maps are produced from different data sources with unknown accuracy; therefore, the quality of these maps needs to be assessed. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the positional accuracy of digital maps that produced from General Directorate of Surveying. Two different study areas were selected: AL-Rusafa and AL-Karkh in Baghdad / Iraq with an area of 172.826 and 135.106 square kilometers, respectively. Different statistical analyses were conducted to calculate the elements of positional accuracy assessment (mean µ, root mean square error RMSE, minimum and maxi
... Show MoreGeneral Directorate of Surveying is considered one of the most important sources of maps in Iraq. It produced digital maps for whole Iraq in the last six years. These maps are produced from different data sources with unknown accuracy; therefore, the quality of these maps needs to be assessed. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the positional accuracy of digital maps that produced from General Directorate of Surveying. Two different study areas were selected: AL-Rusafa and AL-Karkh in Baghdad / Iraq with an area of 172.826 and 135.106 square kilometers, respectively. Different statistical analyses were conducted to calculate the elements of positional accuracy assessment (mean µ, root mean square error RMSE, mini
... Show MoreObjective: The present study aims to assess the stressful life events for patients with substance abuse in Baghdad city.
Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at (Baghdad teaching hospital and Ibn-Rushed Psychiatric hospital).
Starting from 1
st of December 2012 to 3
rd of July 2013, A non-probability (purposive) sample of 64 patients that
diagnosed with substance abuse, the data were collected through the use of semi-structured interview by
questionnaire, which consists of three parts sociodemographic data, medical information, and Life events scale
consists of 49-items distributed to six domains including, family and social domain, health domain, security, legal and
criminal domain, work and school do
Abstract
Background: anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) are becoming increasingly popular between bodybuilders and people who want to enhance their physiques. However, according to the rise of the Internet and laws prohibiting sales of these substances without prescription, the route of obtaining and administration practices have become more and more dangerous.
Objective: Anabolic-androgenic steroids represents a group of synthetic testosterone derivatives its play an important role in clinical treatment. These group of drugs are widely abused among the general public to increase lean body weight and improve athletic performance. It has been reported that AAS use can cause many adverse e
... Show MoreThe research aimed to identify the effectiveness of instructional design according to whole brain theory of Herman in the achievement of chemistry at the fifth scientific students at a secondary school of the General Directorate for Educational in Diyala / Baladruz in Iraq. The research sample Consisted of (57 student, (29) students as experimental group studied according to instructional design strategies for whole brain theory of Herrmann and (28) a student as a control group studied by the usual way for two semesters, a prepared achievement test as article and objective type of multiple choice, the coefficient stability of alpha-Cronbach equation reached (0.86). The research Results showed the presence of a statistically significant d
... Show MoreAbstract
This research aims to evaluate the application of the inspectors general of global indicators offices according to the axles (leadership, strategy and planning, employees, partners and resources, process management) and through the assumption main research which states that (there is an application for global indicators to evaluate performance in the offices of the ministries under study) which are subdivided into five sub-hypotheses according to the classification and division of the five axes of the checklist.
The researchers have taken refuge in the process of assessing the performance of the check list which included global i
... Show MoreInternational companies are striving to reduce their costs and increase their profits, and these trends have produced many methods and techniques to achieve these goals. these methods is heuristic and the other Optimization.. The research includes an attempt to adapt some of these techniques in the Iraqi companies, and these techniques are to determine the optimal lot size using the algorithms Wagner-Whitin under the theory of constraints. The research adopted the case study methodology to objectively identify the problem of research, namely determining lot size optimal for each of the products of electronic measurement laboratory in Diyala and in light of the bottlenecks in w
... Show MoreBackground: Oral health is a mirror of general health. During pregnancy, oral health is affected by changes in saliva and oral hygiene measures which may lead to more dental caries.
Objective: Assess oral health status in relation to salivary antimicrobial peptides in pregnant women.
Subjects and Method: This cross sectional study was carried out in different primary health care centers in Rusafa sectors/ Baghdad city. The total sample included was 80 women (their age range from 21-30). The study group consisted of 40 pregnant women: half of them were in the first trimester and others were in third trimester, while the control group included 40 non-pregnant married fem
... Show MoreThe construction industry plays a crucial role in the countries' economy, especially in the developed country. This point encourages the concerned institution to use new techniques and integrate many techniques and methods to maximize the benefits. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the use of risk management, value management, and building information modeling in the Iraqi construction industry. The evaluation process aims at two objectives. The direct objective was to evaluate the knowledge in risk management (RM), value management (VM), and building information modeling (BIM). The indirect objective was to support the participants with information related to the main items mentioned. The questionnaire
... Show More