title: [Bedwetting by Dutch, Surinam, Moroccan and Turkish 3-4, 5-6, and 11-12-year-old children].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether ethnic origin is related to the prevalence of bedwetting among children and how parents handle bedwetters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Department of Youth Health Care in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents of children who attended a child health centre in 1992/1993 were interviewed using a questionnaire. A total of 1506 children aged 3-4, 2422 aged 5-6 and 2081 aged 11-12 years participated in the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalences of bedwetting were 24.6%, 15.7% and 5.4% at 3-4, 5-6 and 11-12 years of age respectively. Moroccan and Turkish 3-4-year-olds wet their beds just as often as Dutch children, Surinamese 3-4-year-olds less often. However, Surinamese, Moroccan and Turkish school children wet their beds more often than their Dutch classmates. For Dutch children the prevalence of bedwetting at the age of 5-6 was clearly lower than at the age of 3-4, in contrast with Surinamese, Moroccan and Turkish children. Non-Dutch bedwetters were rewarded less often for a dry night and punished more often for a wet night than Dutch bedwetters, even at the age of 3-4.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bedwetting by school children still occurs often, and more often among non-Dutch than among Dutch children. Possibly, differences between Dutch and non-Dutch parents in the ways they deal with bedwetting plays a part. Appropriate information and support of (especially non-Dutch) parents of young children can perhaps reduce the prevalence of bedwetting at later ages.
authors.affiliation: Gemeentelijke Geneeskundige en Gezondheidsdienst (GG&GD), sector Jeugdgezondheidszorg, Amsterdam.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: van der Wal
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pauw-Plomp
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Schulpen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000208:ethnology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004775:Enuresis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009018:Morocco / Q000208:ethnology; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D013532:Suriname / Q000208:ethnology; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology