[An epidemiological analysis of the sequence of bladder control and nocturnal enuresis prevalence in the children of the province of León]

Abstract

The objective of this study was to better understand the development of nocturnal bladder control in our population of children and to analyze the different factors that influence this process. A transversal epidemiological study in a randomly chosen sample of schoolchildren, between the ages of 6 and 10 years, in the province of Leon was performed. The study was carried out by means of an anonymous survey given to the children's parents through the school center. The survey was comprised of personal, environmental and sphincter control development questions. We define nocturnal enuresis as at least one wet night per month in children older than 6 years of age. Of the surveys distributed, 65.1% were answered. The prevalence of primary, secondary and total nocturnal enuresis was 10.18%, 2.91% and 13.09%, respectively, for children 6 years of age and 6.59%, 0.9% and 7.49%, respectively in 10 year old children. Among the children without nocturnal enuresis, in the event of family antecedents of nocturnal enuresis, in absence of toilet training, or when sphincter education was started later than 15 months of age, slower maturation of sphincter control was observed. We conclude, that the nocturnal enuresis prevalence is similar to that reported in other related countries and that bladder control maturation among children without bed-wetting tendencies is related to the educational attitude of the parents and family antecedents of nocturnal enuresis.