Nocturnal enuresis in childhood

Of some 12,000 children in the National Child Development Study for whom the information was available, 10-7 per cent were enuretic between the ages of five and seven years, and 4-8 per cent were enuretic at 11 years. More boys than girls were wet at 11 years, although there was no difference at seven years. At both ages the manual social-classes were over-represented among the children with enuresis. These findings add support to the theory that nocturnal enuresis has multiple causes. The relative importance of social, developmental and psychiatric factors varies with the different groups of children early bed-wetting being associated with delayed development and later enuresis being more strongly associated with behaviour difficulties.