The recent announcement by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) took many by surprise. According to the KEDI, unlike general literacy rate, reading literacy rate (38%) among Koreans which is an individual's ability to understand the information we face on daily base such as directions on prescribed medication ranked at the bottom of all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. If we accept it as it is, it raises serious questions about Koreans' abilities to read, comprehend, and process necessary information required of functioning properly in the society. Furthermore since the information we get in the medical settings is usually more difficult to understand than other basic information we face in our daily lives, it may be assumed that health illiteracy among Koreans could be much higher and that the ramifications of it would be very much costly. Despite this seriousness of the reading illiteracy among Koreans, to the best of our knowledge, no attempts have been made to address and determine the prevalence of health illiteracy and relate it to the public health educational issue. More specifically, the effectiveness of health education materials has never been analyzed in this regard for the improvement of health education in Korea. The purpose of this article is to introduce a new concept of health literacy to the Korean public by reviewing the existing studies in the West and encourage researchers in the public health education field to look at the concept of health literacy as one of the possible strategies to design and develop more effective health education campaigns in Korea.

Background
: The herbicides used in Vietnam were later found to be extremely contaminated with 2,3,7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-ρ-dioxin (TCDD). The carcinogenecity of the product was for all cancers combined. The risk of soft tissue sarcoma, lung cancer, and lymphoma, chloracne, peripheral neuropathy and other diseases were found to be increased. Although many veterans exposed to herbicides had chronic skin diseases with variable clinical features, there were few researches about herbicides-related skin diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of herbicides-related skin diseases and to provide epidemiologic information.

Methods : This study has been reviewed in the clinical findings of 127 veterans with skin diseases exposed to herbicides who visited Kosin University Gospel Hospital during the 5 years from January of 1997 to December of 2001.

Results : The age distribution was in the range of 47∼68 years. The mean age was 54.6 years old. All patients were male. In the duration, 34 patients (26.8%) developed skin diseases for 6∼10 years, 21 patients (16.5%) for 16∼20 years, and 21 patients (16.5%), 25 years. In the incidence, seborrheic dermatitis was the most frequently observed in 45 patients (35.4%) followed by eczematous dermatitis in 41 patients (32.3%), xerotic eczema in 23 (18.1%) and pruritic dermatoses in 21 (16.5 %). In the incidence ratio of skin diseases with systemic diseases, chronic urticaria was the most highly observed with 100% (1/1) followed by fungal infection in 70% (7/10), other diseases in 66.6% (6/9), seborrheic dermatitis in 64.4% (29/45), eczematous dermatitis in 56.1% (23/41), and xerotic eczema in 52.2% (12/23). Sixty eight patients had skin diseases with systemic disease. Hypertension and diabetes were most frequently observed with 24 and 23 patients, respectively. The order of incidence was as follows: liver disease, gastroduodenal ulcer, peripheral neuropathy, chronic gastroenteritis, and hyperlipidemia. Mycosis fungoides was found in 4 cases and monoclonal T cell γ receptor gene rearrangement was detected in 2 cases (50%).

Conclusion : Skin diseases among veterans exposed to herbicides used in Vietnam were chronic and showed variable clinical features. It was difficult to confirm the relationship between skin diseases and herbicides, but further researches are required to seek guidelines for the evaluation of skin diseases.

Background
: Recently, the legal and ethical issues relative to euthanasia are becoming controversial in Korea. This study was designed to verify the differences of the attitudes on euthanasia between judicial apprentices and residents.

Methods : The questionnaire was conducted on the 35th-group of the judicial apprentices on March 24, 2004, and on the residents from April 2 to May 22, 2004. The respondents were 636 in total consisting of 460 judicial apprentices and 176 residents.

Results : Of the total 636 subjects, 373 (81.1%) of the judicial apprentices and 149 (84.7%) of residents agreed that allowing euthanasia is moral, without any significant difference (P＞0.05). The number of residents was greater (59 people, 33.5%) than that of judicial apprentices (112 people, 24.4%) who agreed with active euthanasia (P＜0.05). Among the total, 397 (86.3%) of the judicial apprentices and 160 (91.4%) of the residents answered that the law for euthanasia was necessary, without any significant difference (P＞0.05). But, among these supporters, the respondents who agreed on active euthanasia were significantly different in number between judicial apprentices (n=93, 23.4%) and residents (n=54, 33.8%) (P＜0.05).

Conclusion : This study did not find any significant differences between the two groups in the necessity of the law for euthanasia, but the rate of agreement on active euthanasia was higher in residents group than in judicial apprentices group.

Background
: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between 7 health habits and health-related quality of life using the SF-36 questionnaire.

Methods : The subjects for this study were 550 workers in Seongnam City, Kyonggi Province, Korea. Data were collected by using constructed questionnaires from 11 September 2004 to 25 September 2004. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS.

Results : There were positive relationships of favorable health habits as indicated by Alameda 7 to health-related quality of life. After controlling for the effects of confounding cofactors that included age, sex, diseases, and other health habits, multiple regression analysis indicated as follows. 1) The item of 'eating breakfast everyday' were significantly related to the grade of social function (SF) and bodily pain (BP). 2) The item of 'sleeping for 7∼8 hours a day' were significantly related to all domains of the SF-36 except physical function (PF). 3) The item of 'normal Body Mass Index' were significantly related to the grade of Role limitations-emotional (RE). 4. The item of 'regular physical exercise' were significantly related to the grade of general health (GH), physical function (PF), vitality (VT), and mental health (MH). Other health habits like not snacking between meals, never smoking, and low alcohol consumption were not associated with any of the SF-36 profiles.

Conclusion : There were positive relationships of favorable health habits to health-related quality of life. It is important to have favorable health habits for good health-related quality of life.

A 41 year-old man had suffered from cough, sputum and febrile sense for several months. On the chest CT scan, small nodules, cystic air spaces, and pneumothorax were observed. Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis was confirmed by lung biopsy. Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis in adult is an uncommon granulomatous disease of unknown cause, which affects the lung, either in isolation or in addition to other organ systems. The pulmonary symptoms at the time of presentation were nonspecific, and symptoms by the involvement of other organs occur sometimes. Pneumothoraces commonly were complicated the course of pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis and frequently recurred. We report a pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis with pneumothorax in adult.