INFANTS WHO BECOME ENURETICS - LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF 161 KIBBUTZ CHILDREN

In this longitudinal study of 161 kibbutz children [Israel], a number of specific variables were found to correlate with the failure to attain normative urinary control at age 4, but no single variable could be considered in isolation as the most influencing or decisive cause of the persistence of bed-wetting. Instead, it was found that the variables coacted in multiform ways and thus gave rise to a number of enuretic patterns. Up to the age of 4, about two-thirds of the children in the sample achieved bladder control. From this age onward, the decrease in the percentage of bed wetters was much slower: no more than 6-8% annually. The skewed age-frequency distribution of achievement of bladder control, with a prolonged tail, points to the presence of associated factors in addition to pure developmental variations. A number of variables [physical and psychological] were found to correlate with the failure to attain bladder control at age 4.