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 paper presents a hybrid approach for solving null values problem; it hybridizes rough set theory with intelligent swarm algorithm. The proposed approach is a supervised learning model. A large set of complete data called learning data is used to find the decision rule sets that then have been used in solving the incomplete data problem. The intelligent swarm algorithm is used for feature selection which represents bees algorithm as heuristic search algorithm combined with rough set theory as evaluation function. Also another feature selection algorithm called ID3 is presented, it works as statistical algorithm instead of intelligent algorithm. A comparison between those two approaches is made in their performance for null values estima
... Show MoreThis paper is concerned with introducing and studying the o-space by using out degree system (resp. i-space by using in degree system) which are the core concept in this paper. In addition, the m-lower approximations, the m-upper approximations and ospace and i-space. Furthermore, we introduce near supraopen (near supraclosed) d. g.'s. Finally, the supra-lower approximation, supraupper approximation, supra-accuracy are defined and some of its properties are investigated.
This dissertation studies the application of equivalence theory developed by Mona Baker in translating Persian to Arabic. Among various translation methodologies, Mona Baker’s bottom-up equivalency approach is unique in several ways. Baker’s translation approach is a multistep process. It starts with studying the smallest linguistic unit, “the word”, and then evolves above the level of words leading to the translation of the entire text. Equivalence at the word level, i.e., word for word method, is the core point of Baker’s approach.
This study evaluates the use of Baker’s approach in translation from Persian to Arabic, mainly because finding the correct equivalence is a major challenge in this translation. Additionall
... Show MoreThe current study aimed at (identifying the impact of a proposed strategy based on the realistic mathematics theory in the mathematical interrelation among the third intermediate grade students), two samples from the third intermediate grade were tested in a school affiliated to Rusafa I General education Directorate in Baghdad for the academic year (2022-2021)the experimental group will study according to the proposed strategy and it consisted of (30) female students , the control group will study through the traditional method and the number of its students is (30), thus the study sample consisted of (60) female students, the two groups were equalized in the variables (age in months, intelligence, prior knowledge) and to achieve the study
... Show MoreAbstract Objective: The underlying molecular basis of ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) has not yet been studied among Iraqi people. This study determined the frequency and types of some cardiovascular genetic risk factors among Iraqi patients with IHDs. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study recruiting 56 patients with acute IHD during a 2-month period excluding patients >50 years and patients with documented hyperlipidemia. Their ages ranged between 18 and 50 years; males were 54 and females were only 2. Peripheral blood samples were aspirated from all patients for troponin I and DNA testing. Molecular analysis to detect 12 common cardiovascular genetic risk factors using CVD StripAssay® (ViennaLab Diagnostics GmbH, Austria) was performed
... Show MoreObjective : To study the effect of some risk factors like age, smoking and Diabetes mellitus (DM) among patients with
certain cardiovascular diseases (Angina pectoris and Myocardial infarction), in addition to the assessment of the Creactive
protein (CRP) in the sera of those patients.
Methodology: The study was carried out on (100) subjects who were hospitalized in the Iraqi Center of heart Diseases
in Baghdad city and were suffering from Myocardial InfarcƟon (MI) (16) and Angina Pectoris (AP) (79) or from both (5)
over a period from September 2009 to June 2010. The results of paƟents were compared with those of (30) healthy
and age-matched individuals as a control group. Data were obtained from patients who were alr
Objective(s): This research aims at evaluating the quality of pulmonary tuberculosis patients life before and after applying the suggested instructional program, and to find out relationships among distribution of an overall assessment quality of life improvement and socio-demographic characteristics variables. Methodology: Self controlled design studying effectiveness of applying instructional program on quality of life for pulmonary tuberculosis patients among sample size (65) patients from primary health care centers/AL-Sadur City sector-the consultation clinic of chest and respiratory diseases at AL