Children with urinary problems can blame their parents, according to a new study that links urinary problems in children with similar problems their parents suffered in childhood.

Dr. J. Labrie of University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands and colleagues compared 173 parents who had children with "overactive bladder" or "dysfunctional voiding" to 98 parents who brought children to the hospital for other reasons.

Overactive bladder is a condition characterized by a strong, frequent urge to urinate, sometimes accompanied by leakage. Dysfunctional voiding is a condition whereby one voids against tight pelvic floor muscles characterized by a staccato or interrupted urine stream.

Labrie and colleagues found that "statistically significantly" more mothers of children with overactive bladder or dysfunctional voiding reported having suffered similar symptoms in childhood, compared to mothers of children without these urinary woes.

"Overactive bladder symptoms of childhood persisted in adulthood," the researchers report in the Journal of Urology. There was, however, no association between childhood voiding problems and adult bladder emptying disorders.

This is the first report of a relationship between childhood bladder dysfunction in children and their parents, Labrie and colleagues note. Based on their findings, they say, further studies on the hereditary aspects of urinary problems may be worthwhile.

"In children, there is little information available regarding the natural history of overactive bladder and for that matter dysfunctional voiding," Dr. Pamela Ellsworth, associate professor of urology and a pediatric urologist at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, who was not involved with the study, told Reuters Health.

Ellsworth said the Dutch study and two earlier studies point to a genetic link, but she said it is still premature to conclude there is such a link. Confirming a genetic association between overactive bladder and dysfunctional voiding could help in treating patients, Ellsworth said.

"I think that the benefit would be earlier diagnosis and treatment, which could decrease some of the adverse effects -- urinary tract infections, constipation, incontinence and the social implications of incontinence as well as to help parents deal with the symptoms," she said.

She said a limitation of the Dutch study and other studies is that they were based on parent's recall of childhood symptoms. "What is needed," Ellsworth said, "are long-term studies following children with overactive bladder and dysfunctional voiding into adulthood and seeing if their symptoms persist, recur, or wax and wane and then to look at their offspring. Needless to say, this will take some time."

SOURCE: Journal of Urology, May, 2010.