Group Versus Individual Urotherapy for Children

What are we doing? A pilot research study is planned to take place within the Pediatric Urology program at McMaster Children's hospital starting this spring/summer 2012. The pilot study will compare standard individual teaching that occurs in pediatric urology clinic about bladder re-training and achieving healthy bladder and bowel habits to a group teaching session. The group teaching session will be one hour in length and include the same content taught in pediatric urology clinic and provide more time for the children to ask questions, demonstrate and practice different exercises and talk about some of the challenges associated with having problems with their bladder. The group teaching session will be approximately one hour in length and occur weekly in the evenings for 12 to 15 weeks. Study participants will be asked to attend either one group teaching session or one individual teaching session which will occur in regular pediatric urology clinic. Parents will be asked to complete a demographics questionnaire at the start of the study and child participants will be asked to complete 2 short questionnaires about symptoms and quality of life before and after either individual or group teaching sessions. At the 3 month follow up, parents and child participants will also be asked to fill out an evaluation form of the session received. Children between the ages of 6 and 10 years old and a diagnosis of nonneurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction will be asked if they would like to participate. Why are we doing it? Some of the symptoms of bladder dysfunction include incontinence (wetting), recurrent urinary tract infections, frequency (having to pee a lot) and urgency (having sudden urges to pee). These symptoms can affect a child's physical and emotional/mental well-being. Treatment includes improving bladder habits through bladder re-training and improving bowel habits through treatment and management of constipation as well as establishing a bowel routine. Child