Background: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs occurs in all aspects of anticancer drug handling. Proper recommendations and guidelines should be applied to control and reduce exposure. Objective: To assess pharmacists' knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of anticancer drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at seven major hospitals in Baghdad City, Iraq, from December 2023 to February 2024. A pre-designed questionnaire was given to pharmacists who handled anticancer drugs in chemotherapy units. The questionnaire comprises sociodemographic data, knowledge of the safe handling of cytotoxic drugs and thoughts about exposure and risk, practices for safely handling cytotoxic drugs, and challenges for safely handling cytotoxic drugs. Results: A total of 126 pharmacists were enrolled in the study. Less than half of the participants (46%) received training on anticancer drugs. While more than a third (42.9%) of the pharmacists were handling more than 100 cytotoxic preparations weekly, the total knowledge score was 7.14, while the total practice score was 73.36, with less than half of the pharmacists having good knowledge (44.44%) or practice (48.41%). Pharmacists who received training had significantly higher total practice scores than those who did not. Pharmacists with more than 100 weekly preparations were more knowledgeable than those with 50–99 preparations. Conclusions: The majority of participating pharmacists had fair to excellent knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of cytotoxic medications. However, there were some gaps regarding important knowledge and practice issues. To improve knowledge and practices regarding anticancer handling, training is necessary.
Background: Investigating dental health knowledge among children is important. Knowing what behaviors are right in relation to dental health does not guarantee that children will practice those behaviors. However, lack of knowledge and misconceptions about dental health may lead to behaviors that are harmful to teeth and gum. Baseline data on knowledge levels are required to determine which particular areas of dental health education are in need of improvement for high-risk children living in different geographical areas. This research was conducted to study the oral health status, dental knowledge and behavior in relation to two different cities, among children in Baghdad and Thamar (republic of Yemen) governorate. Materia
... Show MoreWe aimed to examine the potential protective effects of Iraqi
Rats were assigned to four groups, six in each group. Group I: rats were administered a daily oral dose of 1 mL/kg/day of distilled water. Group II: rats were intraperitoneally injected with 70 mg/kg DEN once per week for 10 conse
Background: This study aims to investigate the effect of fixed orthodontic appliances and/or antihypertensive drugs on the weight of experimental rats. Materials and Methods: Thir-ty-six male Wistar albino rats were subjected to a split-mouth design study, in which an orthodontic appliance was inserted in one side to move the first molar mesially for 2 weeks while the other side acted as a control to tooth movement. The rats were allocated into three groups: group A (n = 12), without any pharmacological treatment; group B (n = 12), subcu-taneous injection of bisoprolol fumarate (5 mg/kg) daily; and group C (n = 12), subcutaneous injection of valsartan (10 mg/kg) daily. A fixed orthodontic appliance with a closing coil spring delivering 5
... Show MoreObjective(s): To assess Baghdad University students’ knowledge and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS, and to find out
the relationship of Baghdad University students’ knowledge and attitudes with certain variables (gender,
socioeconomic status, field of study).
Methodology: A descriptive analytic study was used to assess the knowledge and attitudes of Baghdad University
Students’ toward HIV/AIDS. The study was conducted (November 1st 2012 to July 15th 2013). A non-probability
(purposive sample) of 400 students (males-138 and females-262) were selected from four colleges and they were
in the fourth class, a probability (stratified random) method was used to select four colleges at University of
Baghdad as a study settin
To assess the total hip replacement patients’ knowledge of home – care regarding pain management, medication therapy, wound care, mobility limitation and complications may occur in the post hip replacement surgery, and to assess relationship between some variables such as, age level of education, sex & marital status with home- care knowledge. A descriptive study was used to assess the hip-replacement patient home-knowledge, a purposive sampling of (60) hip-replaced –patients were selected from Gazy Alhariri Hospital (central of surgical profession ) and Alwasity Hospital ( plastic surgery) , the questionnaire obtains two parts , part one, which included socio-demographical characteristics of the samp
... Show MoreObjective: The current study aimed to prepare a measure for comprehensive knowledge marketing management. In the Iraqi sports institutions under study, identifying the extent of each dimension of comprehensive knowledge marketing management. Research methodology: This study relied on appropriate scientific methods, mainly represented by the descriptive method and the analytical method, and on the case study method because it suits the nature of the study. The study population was determined from the administrative cadres in the Iraqi Sports Federation, and the research sample numbered (86) and was represented as follows: The preparation sample numbered (50) and a percentage amounted to (58.13%), the sample of the exploratory experim
... Show MoreObjective: The current study aimed to prepare a measure for comprehensive knowledge marketing management. In the Iraqi sports institutions under study, identifying the extent of each dimension of comprehensive knowledge marketing management. Research methodology: This study relied on appropriate scientific methods, mainly represented by the descriptive method and the analytical method, and on the case study method because it suits the nature of the study. The study population was determined from the administrative cadres in the Iraqi Sports Federation, and the research sample numbered (86) and was represented as follows: The preparation sample numbered (50) and a percentage amounted to (58.13%), the sample of the exploratory experim
... Show MoreThis study was designed to investing the drug prescribing pattern which is the important point in the rational or irrational use of drugs among patients dispensing their prescriptions from the private pharmacies in Maysan governorate, Iraq for a period of 1 month. The data collected from prescriptions were calculated and analyzed according to the WHO prescribing guidelines. The data showed that the mean of drugs included in single prescription was 3.4, and 12% of prescribed drugs were written as generic names; moreover, the percentage of antibiotics, corticosteroids and anxiolytics were 33.3%, 11.4% and 23.8% respectively. Those results indicate the irrational use of drugs when compared with the world health organization standard values
... Show MoreThis study aimed to evaluate the preparedness and adherence of community pharmacists to the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Health Advisory COVID-19 guidelines for pharmacists (July 2020) during COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional study based on electronic survey using google form, which was distributed from November 19, 2020 to January 1, 2021 using social media platforms. The survey measured 21 pharmacy preventive measures (PM). A multivariate regression analysis was used to identify factors influencing pharmacy implementing of PM. Hand disinfection after serving patients represented the main adopted measure (89.3%). Surprisingly, only 35.4% of participants implemented the proper ways of hand disinfection during fa
... Show MoreImmunization is one of the most cost-effective and successful public health applications. The results of immunization are difficult to see as the incidence of disease occurrence is low while adverse effects following the immunization are noticeable, particularly if the vaccine was given to apparently healthy person. High safety expectations of population regarding the vaccines so they are more prone to hesitancy regarding presence of even small risk of adverse events which may lead to loss of pub
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