Introduction: The aims of this study were to establish the prevalence of enuresis, to determine accompanying factors, and to identify common methods in the management of enuresis in Turkish children aged between 6 and 11 years living in eastern Anatolia. Methods: The parents of 3,527 schoolchildren aged between 6 and 11 years completed a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire asked about sociodemographic data, enuresis data, physical or psychological disorders, and family stressors. Descriptive statistics and χ² test were used for data analysis. Results: The response rate was 88%. The overall prevalence of reported enuresis was 12.96%, and the prevalence of marked enuresis (at least weekly) was 9.8%. Enuresis was notably more common in boys (male:female ratio 1.6), and the prevalence rates decreased by age without gender bias. Of all enuretic children, 21% had also daytime bed-wetting. The rate of a positive family history was 42% for siblings only and 66% for the other family members. Significantly more of the dry children woke up spontaneously at night to void as compared with the enuretic children (p < 0.001). The parental concern level was not high, and only 15% of the children visited a physician for the management of enuresis. Low socioeconomic status, unfavorable perinatal or postnatal history, and unsatisfactory familial characteristics were significantly more frequent in the enuretic group (p < 0.05). The enuretic children had also higher rates of poor school performance and poor social adaptation as compared with nonenuretic children (p < 0.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that the prevalence of enuresis in eastern Anatolia is similar to that reported from western Anatolia and from most other countries. Turkish families did not report a high-level concern about enuresis, and the problem was managed primarily within the family.

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Background: Nicotine is known to be associated with adverse effects in infants and children. It is concentrated in breast milk and is absorbed by the infant. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects on breast-fed rat pups of maternal nicotine exposure during lactation. Methods: In the experimental group (n = 6), nicotine was given to lactating dams (2 mg/kg/day) after delivery and continued for 10 days during lactation. Control animals (n = 4) received saline for the same duration. The suckling rats were weighed and killed on postnatal day 10, and samples were taken from the lung, liver, kidney, spleen and small intestine for histopathological examination. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in the liver of the dam and the offspring. Results: Histopathological changes in the liver of the nicotine-exposed group showed portal inflammatory infiltrate, ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes, and focal necrosis in the parenchyma. Thickening of alveolar walls because of interstitial inflammation was noted in the lungs. Histopathological examination of kidney, spleen and small intestine tissue did not reveal any abnormality. In the experimental group, SOD and CAT activities were significantly decreased (p <0.001) but MDA levels were significantly increased (p <0.001) compared with the control group. Conclusion: These results indicate that maternal nicotine exposure induces oxidative stress and causes detrimental histopathological changes in the lung and liver of lactating offspring.

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