Background
"Enuresis " also known as bedwetting or night-time incontinence is the inability to control urination during sleep [1, 2]. Mono-symptomatic enuresis (MNE) is the only night-time incontinence and “not mono-symptomatic enuresis” (NMNE) is also the daytime urinary disorders. Bedwetting is a disorder that affects the development of children personality and interferes with social relationships of children and their family.
Aim
Primary endpoint is to estimate the prevalence of enuresis in patients aged 5 to 14 years, to evaluate the awareness of the problem by the family [3], to assess the discomfort experienced by patients and then to look for the presence of co-factors.
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Methods
The study, promoted by SICuPP (Italian Society of Pediatric Primary Care), was based on a questionnaire filled by the parents of children enrolled by 75 pediatricians from three different regions (Veneto, Tuscany and Puglia).
Results
We evaluated 3165 children (1618 males and 1547 females). The enuresis is present in 262 children (8.2 % of the study); the prevalence was 16.5% at 5 years 10.5% and 6% NMNE/MNE) and decreases with age up to 4.6% (2.6% and 2% NMNE/ MNE) at the age of 13 years; these data agree with other epidemiological studies . Familiarity and sleep disorders are potential risk factors. Only 33% of parents tell the problem to the pediatrician: 67.8% of the parents don’t speak of it because they consider it unimportant, 2.7% because they are "ashamed", 29.5% for "other reasons". Only 32 patients with enuresis (12.2%) were in treatment. 21.8% of parents think that enuresis "very emotionally involved" their child, 8.5% think that the child is "very limited" in its activities with classmates, 8.7% think that the child is "very concerned" about his health. 33.3% consider bedwetting problem "very important" for the family organization, 24.7% consider that it restricts greatly the activity of the child with classmates, 17.3% is "very concerned" about the health of the child, and finally 11% think that bedwetting is something to be "very ashamed" of.
Conclusions
Preliminary data show that bedwetting is a "masked" disease. It is important to look for and recognize the problem, to improve the quality of life of patients and their families
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