Prevalence of Nocturnal Enuresis in School Aged Children: The Role of Personal and Parents Related Socio-Economic and Educational Factors

OBJECTIVE: Nocturnal enuresis is a common psychosocial concern for both parents and children. In the present study we have determined the prevalence of nocturnal enuresis in Urmia, Iran children and associated personal and familial factors with this problem. METHODS: A cross sectional epidemiological study for detection of nocturnal enuresis prevalence rate and evaluation of associated familial and personal factors in elementary school children (7-11 years old) from Urmia were investigated. The subjects were selected by cluster sampling method. Chi square test and logistic regression were used in univariate and multivariate respectively. FINDINGS: Of the 1600 questionnaires distributed, 918 (57%) were completed and included in the final analysis. The rest, which were not filled by parents and also those out of our study age range were excluded. Gender of the subjects was almost equally distributed (48.6% males and 51.4% females). Prevalence of nocturnal enuresis was 18.7% (n = 172) and prevalence of day time incontinence was 5.5% (n=51). There was no significant gender difference between these two groups. Enuretics had crowded families, positive family history, low educational level of parents, jobless father, working mother, single parent, poor school performance, positive history of urinary tract infection (UTI). CONCLUSION: Our results with enuresis prevalence and associated factors were comparable to other epidemiological studies from various countries. We found that Iranian families do not pay sufficient attention to their enuretic children.