Letter to the Editor: Prevalance of enuresis nocturna among a group of primary school children living in Diyarbakır.

Abstract

Dear Editor, As a member of The Turkish Association of Urology, I closely pursue studies published in the every issue of Turkish Journal of Urology which is the official media organ of The Turkish Association of Urology recognized as an authority in the field of urology by urologists in Turkey, and Eurasian countries. With the same interest 1 have also read the article by Penbegul et al.[1] published in your journal (TUD 2013;39 (2)101–5) entitled “Prevalence of enuresis nocturna among primary school children.” This study contributes important regional information to the previous studies about prevalence, and risk factors of enuresis nocturna (EN). When we analyzed this study in detail we have recognized that it harboured characteristics comparable to our detailed research on prevalence, and risk factors of enuresis nocturna which we performed in the Hatay province. Unfortunately, I have realized that authors of the abovementioned study did not cite our study published in The Turkish Journal of Urology in the year 2008 (The Prevalence and Risk Factors of Enuresis in Children Aged between 6 and 18 years in Hatay jud 2008;34:42–50). Therefore, I have found it appropriate to make scientific contribution to the article, and raise awareness about this subject so as to guide relevant future studies. In our study we analyzed prevalence, and risk factors of enuresis nocturna in children, and adolescents aged 6–18 years living in the province of Hatay.[2] While we were constructing methodology of our study, we priorly determined the number of students attending all the schools in the province of Hatay based on the data provided by Hatay Provincial Directorate for National Education (for the academic year of 2005–6 a total of 274.950 students. We decided that using appropriate statistical methods, for the determination of prevalence, and risk factors of enuresis in the province of Hatay, the survey study performed on 3931 students would have a sufficient statistical power within a 95% confidence interval, and with an estimated prevalence of 13.5%, maximum standard deviation of ±1.5, and a cluster effect of 2. In line with the study protocol, we distributed 4000 questionnaire forms each having 40 items excluding demographic data of the children to all schools in all villages, and counties of Hatay province by means of Hatay Provincial Directorate for National Education Most (n=2894; 74.6%) of the questionnaire forms were completed, and returned to us. We determined prevalence of enuresis as 9.0 (n=269) percent. Prevalence of enuresis differed in various age groups (6–12 yrs; n=234:12.4%, and 13–18 yrs, n=35: 3.2%). Enuresis was more frequently seen in male children. On the other hand, we did not observe higher incidence of enuresis in younger male children. Still we detected higher frequency of attention deficit, problematic relations between peers, poor school performance, difficulty in awakening from sleep, history of tonsillitis, snoring, and apneic complaints in enuretic children (p<0.001). We observed higher incidence of enuresis in children with enuretic siblings, and parents (p<0.001). A 27.4% of the children with an urological problem (urinary system infection, urolithiasis, and external genital organ anomaly etc) had enuresis. In a multiple logistic regression analysis we performed, we detected that the age of the child, and mother, poor, peer relationships, and school performance, history of enuresis in siblings, and parents were associated with enuresis. Dear Editor, I hope that this study performed by us will enlighten the way for future studies that will be conducted in our country on the evaluation of the prevalence, and risk factors of enuresis. With our deep respect,