Perception and Home Remedies for Nocturnal Enuresis

Abstract

Nocturnal enuresis has diverse causes and modalities of treatment. The awareness of parents about this condition is presumably low and deserves investigation. The objective of this study was to find out the perceived causes and home remedies used in the treatment of nocturnal enuresis amongst primary school children.

A Cross-sectional study of primary school children in Sagamu LGA of Ogun State, Nigeria was done. Five primary schools (public and private) were selected through multi-stage sampling technique. Self administrable semi - structured questionnaires were administered on the parents of pupils aged 6 years to 12 years old respectively. The data extracted included demography, parental education and occupation, presence and frequency of night-time enuresis, perceived causes and home remedies for enuresis.

A total of 424 school children were studied; there were 45.5% males and 55.5% females. The overall prevalence of enuresis was 40.8%. The perceived causes of bedwetting included excessive play (54.9%), deep sleep (27.7%) and excessive water intake at night (7.5%). Bedwetting occurred more frequently between ages 6 years and 9 years. About one third (32.9%) of caregivers did not apply any form of home remedy to their enuretic wards, 27.7% restricted water intake at night, 13.8% woke them up in the night to urinate and 8.7% beat them for bedwetting

It was then concluded that enuresis is a common problem among school children in Sagamu with wrongly perceived causes and home remedies. Health education is hereby canvassed to correct these wrong notions