A study that was published in Urology Journal BJUI International has stated that, one in 50 teenager’s still wet the bed and almost half of 19-year-olds who have a problem are wetting the bed every night.
Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Prince of Wales Hospital had analysed the results of more than 16,500 questionnaires surveying children who were aged 5 to 19. The researchers found that almost 3% of the children reported on bed wetting in the nighttime and one in every five of those also had daytime incontinence. The 3% amounted to 512 children among whom 302 were boys and 212 were girls.The researchers also found that though bed-wetting was less common as children got older, the percentage reporting severe problems increased with age. They found that the children and adolescents who wet the bed at night also showed a similar pattern when it came to daytime incontinence, and they also found a higher percentage of problems reported in older age groups.
Professor Chung K Yeung from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who lead the research said that the findings do challenge the myth that bedwetting usually gets better and disappears, as the child grows older. He explained that these latest findings underline the importance of seeking help for children with severe bed wetting problems, especially if they continue into adolescence.
Yeung said he hopes that his findings will reassure parents of children with mild bed wetting problems, but stress the importance of seeking advice in severe cases, which can often be caused by underlying medical problems and continue into adulthood.
