Background
With the increasing mean height of children, concerns about stature seem to grow in Korea. However, most studies regarding short stature were performed in developing countries where population were likely to be exposed to malnutrition and poor hygienic environments and factors associated with height were seldom studied in well-nourished population. Methods: Study participants were 449 Korean boys and girls enrolled in 2nd or 6th grade of a primary school. Height and weight were measured by standardized method and a questionnaire asking eating habits, birth weight, feeding method, physical exercise, household income, and height of parents was self-administered to each child and their parents. We classified participants into two groups according to the distribution of their height (lower 25% or upper 75%) and evaluated the factors associated with the short height (lower 25%) using multiple linear logistic regression analysis. Results: In the analysis of the whole participants, short height of parents and normal body mass index were significantly associated with short height. Subgroup analysis stratified by gender and school grade showed that short height of father and normal body mass index, short height of mother, low household income, and not engaging in regular physical exercise were significantly associated with short height for 2nd grade boys, 6th grade boys, 2nd grade girls, and 6th grade girls, respectively. Conclusion: The factors associated with short height differed according to gender and school grades. In boys, parental height was significantly associated with and, in girls, environmental factors such as physical exercise or household income were significant factors of short stature. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:251-258)

Background
The association between obesity development and poor family function was controversial in previous studies and has been seldom evaluated in Korean adolescents. Methods: A questionnaire asking family function (family APGAR, Korean family function assessment tool for adolescents), socioeconomic environment, and behavioral characteristics was self-administered to 1,056 adolescents enrolled in a Korean middle school. A total of 774 adolescents who answered the questionnaire thoroughly and had no diseases influencing family function were included. After calculating body mass index (BMI) using the data of physical measurement at school, we classified participants into overweight-obesity (upper 15%) and normal weight group (lower 85%) based on the reference data of Korean childrens' BMI distribution (Korean pediatric society, 1998). Results: The prevalence of overweight-obesity was 13.0% (14.8% among boys and 10.9% among girls). Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis showed overweight-obesity was associated with better family function, higher school grade, fattier body shape of mother, and lower educational level of mother. Gender- specifically, overweight-obesity was associated with better family functioning and higher school grade with odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of 2.36 (1.13, 5.55) and 2.59 (1.36, 4.93), respectively, in boys, whereas only those who were not living with both parents were 2.67 (1.09∼6.54) times more likely to be overweight or obese among girls. Conclusion: The factors associated with overweight- obesity differed by gender and the family function of overweight-obesity group was better than normal weight group, especially in boys. These findings suggest poor family function is neither the cause nor the result of obesity development in adolescents. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:259-268)

Background
Physicians rarely take patients' sexual history during routine medical visit, although it would give very helpful information to reach accurate diagnosis and proper management. This survey was conducted to assess the primary physicians' perspectives towards sexual history taking and their actual behaviors on it. Methods: The survey questionnaire was made through the literature review, in-depth interview and pilot survey. We mailed this questionnaire to 400 primary care physicians who were randomly selected from the lists of internists and family physicians in Seoul and Gyunggi province and 73 of them responded. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 44.3 years. Most of them responded that sexual history is necessary only when the patients' chief complaints are directly related to sexual issues. Among the total, 94% of them answered that he or she took sexual history in less than 25% of the patients who visited his/her own clinic during last one month. The most prevalent barriers to initiate sexual history taking were fear of patients' misunderstanding about sexual harassment or intrusion into patients' personal life (60.3%) and uncertainty to conducting sexual history taking (53.4%). They thought that they were not well educated enough to take sexual history with confidence and more structured education is needed in medical schools and postgraduate residency training. Conclusion: Sexual history seemed not to be taken by primary care physicians as a routine medical practice and physicians showed rather passive attitude. Beneficial effects of sexual history taking on patients' management and related communication skills should be emphasized and systematically educated. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:269-275)

Background
The revised Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) were developed to improve the reporting of Randomized Controlled Trials. We studied to survey the extent to which RCTs report items included in the revised CONSORT recommendations. Methods: A descriptive survey of RCTs enrolled in 2005 at KoreaMed, which is a representative database in Korea was done. The main outcome measures were the proportion of RCTs that reported each of 22 checklist items of CONSORT. Results: We identified 125 RCTs from 26 journals. Random sequence implementation (0%), estimated effect size and its precision (0%), sample size determination (8.9%), method of random sequence generation (7.3%), allocation concealment (3.2%), participant flow (4.8%) and any other analysis (7.3%), generalizability of the trial findings (0.8%) were pooly reported. Conclusion: The proportions of following the CONSORT recommendations in Korean medical journals were very low. An effort to improve the reporting of RCTs by application and recommendation of CONSORT statement is required. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:276-282)

We report a case of acute, painful polyneuropathy in a woman with newly diagnosed type I diabetes mellitus associated with a precipitous drop in hemoglobin A1c . She has had poorly controlled diabetes mellitus type I for 5 years despite diet, execise, oral therapy because she has been diagnosed type II diabetes mellitus 5 years before. She experienced diabetes ketoacidosis, and she presented with a hemoglobin A1c of 17.8% and was hospitalized for continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. Following the initiation of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion, the patient's hemoglobin A1c fell to 6.1% within 2 months. During this 2-month period, she developed severe burning in her hand, feet and trunk, accompanied by tingling paresthesia and dysesthesia. Nerve conduction studies were consistent with mild sensorymotor peripheral neuropathy. Initially, she required opiate analgesics for pain control because gabapetin or tramadol/acetminophen did not help. Three months after presentation, the patient showed dramatic improvement and her pain resolved. Although not well described in the neurologic literature, this case represents insulin neuritis, one of the few diabetic neuropathies that has a favorable outcome. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:283-286)