Background: Enuresis is a frequent manifestation with important psychological and social consequences in Africa. In order to help the public authorities to plan monitoring actions and better targeted health interventions, we carried out this prospective study in one district of Ouagadougou. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze enuretic children and teenagers' profile from 5- to 16-years old, and their parents' attitude toward the disorder.
Population and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,575 children and teenagers of this age group. Those children and teenagers were chosen from a random sample of 645 households. Sociodemographic and medical data were obtained from respondents by using a written questionnaire.
Results: The rate of young people affected was 12.95%. Among them, 78.9% had primary enuresis; 50.5% of them were not treated. Those with secondary enuresis were more easily treated than those with primary stage. 87.3% were traditionally treated and 3.4% of enuretic children were essentially submitted to fluid restrictions. In about 27% of the cases, children were punished by their parents.
Conclusion: Sociodemographic characteristics of our sample were similar to those in the literature. However, the parents in our study rarely used modern treatment and had inappropriate attitudes toward the disorder. We recommend that the most important factors to be taken into account in the secondary prevention of enuresis are the parents' ignorance and/or their scepticism toward the modern therapeutic possibilities.