Attitudes of enuretic children towards their illness

The aim of this study was to establish the attitudes of enuretic children towards their illness and to assess the correlation between children's attitudes and biological and medical variables describing the clinical picture and course of enuresis. Fifty children were included (31M, 19F), aged 8-18 y (mean 12.74 y), all with the diagnosis of enuresis. The reference groups consisted of 60 children with asthma and 40 children with chronic heart disease, aged 8-12 y. The Polish version of the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS) was administered to all the children and structured interviews concerning demographic and medical data were conducted with the parents. There were no significant differences in median CATIS scores between the subgroups divided according to age, type of enuresis and family history of enuresis. There was no significant correlation between the CATIS score and frequency of enuresis and number of therapeutic failures. The girls had significantly lower median CATIS scores than the boys (p = 0.03). The difference in median CATIS scores between genders was significant only for the older group aged 14-18 y. The older girls had the lowest CATIS scores. Enuretic children were found to have statistically significantly more negative attitudes towards their illness than children with asthma (p = 0.006) and children with chronic heart disease (p = 0.067). Conclusion: Enuretic children had more negative feelings about their illness than children with other chronic conditions. This negative attitude was not related to demographic or clinical data except for gender. The adolescent girls demonstrated the most negative attitude towards enuresis.