Enuresis and Obesity

Question 1

How many people in Australia have enuresis?

Answer 1

3 million Australians
10% of 10 year olds
3% of 15 year olds

Question 2

What are the typical risk factors in men, women and people with disabilities?

Answer 2

Women - delivery of baby increases risk, as does approaching menopause
Men - associated with prostate issues
People with disability - associated with neurological disorder (e.g. paraplegia) or difficulty with movement (e.g. arthritis)

Question 3

What are the six causes of enuresis?

Answer 3

1. UTIs
2. Constipation
3. Drinking too little
4. Drinking inappropriate fluids e.g. sweet drinks
5. Weak pelvic floor muscles
6. Emotional and behavioural problems

Question 4

What is the treatment for enuresis?

Answer 4

1. Monitoring - amount of fluid consumed, volume and frequency of wee, volume and frequency of bedwetting, does bedwetting wake child?
2. Increase bladder capacity - daily super wee, increase fluid intake, reduce toilet visits.
3. Empty bladder at each wee
4. Reduce carbonated, caffeinated, milky drinks
5. Bell and pad

Question 5

What are the psychological factors associated with obesity?

Answer 5

• Depression and obesity have a bidirectional relationship
• Classical conditioning
• Positive-incentive perspective
  1. Internal-External hypothesis (role of external cues in increasing insulin)
  2. Restrained eaters rely on rigid cognitive rules
  3. Emotional cues prompt eating. Emotional eating most correlated with BMI and weight increase. Negative metacognitions about emotions and thoughts prompt emotional eating.

Question 6

What are the social factors associated with obesity?

Answer 6

Stigma of being overweight
Social norm is to be thin
Easy access to high energy food
Less opportunity for movement
Growth in portion sizes

Question 7

What are the biological factors associated with obesity?

Answer 7

• Genetic influences e.g. identical twins raised apart have similar weight and BMI
• Metabolic rate slows with age - about 2% per year
• Set point hypothesis - metabolic rate, food intake and energy output change to maintain weight
• Role of satiety signals
• Anthropological perspective that our bodies are designed to store fat
• Role of limbic system (weight control is not necessarily controlled by ‘rational’ processes)
• Repeated dieting leads to weight loss at slower rates and weight to be regained more quickly.
• We need to do a lot of activity to burn off small amounts of high energy food