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Vol.17 Issue.2 · April–June 2026
Page: 76-83 Research Article 352x viewed
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The Prevalence of labial adhesion in girls aged 6–72 months: A Cross-sectional study from a community Pediatric Clinic

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Published Online: 29 June 2026 · Accepted: 15 March 2026 · Received: 16 August 2025
Doi: 10.15511/tjtfp.26.00276
Cite Code: The Journal of Turkish Family Physician 2026;17(2):76-83
Authors: M. Buğra Han Acar 1 · Barlas Efe Yılmaz 2 · Sariye Elif Özyazıcı Özkan 3 · Özden Gökdemir 4
1 1IUE Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Assist. Prof. Dr., Balçova, İzmir / {ORCID:0000 0002 5193 6533}
2 Izmir University of Economics, Faculty of Medicine, Dr., Balçova, İzmir. {ORCID:0009-0006-0253-2002}
3 Ankara Etlik City Hospital, Department fo Neonatalogy, Ped. Spec. Dr., Ankara /{ORCID:0000-0002-3801-522X}
4 IUE Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Asst. Prof., Balçova, İzmir. {ORCID:0000-0002-0542-5767}

Ethics approval: The study protocol was approved by the Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee of İzmir University of Economics Faculty of Medicine (Approval No: E-97429853-050.04-2023-1123).

Citation code: Acar MBH, Özkan SEÖ, Gökdemir Ö. The Prevalence of labial adhesion in girls aged 6–72 months: A Cross-sectional study from a Community Pediatric Clinic. Jour Turk Fam Phy 2026; 17(2): 76-83 doi: 10.15511/tjtfp.26.00276

This article is published online with Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0).


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Abstract
References

Objective: To determine the prevalence of labial adhesion in girls aged 6–72 months who attended routine pediatric follow-up visits and to describe associated clinical features.

Methods: This is a retrospective study which included 500 girls aged 6–72 months who were followed at a private pediatric clinic in Güzelbahçe, İzmir, between 2021 and 2024. Retrospective review was done for age, presence and type of labial adhesion, atopic skin disease, diaper dermatitis, urinary tract infection (UTI) history, toilet training status, family history, place of residence, and maternal education. Variables were accounted by adjusting the mean by adding or subtracting the standard deviation. Group comparisons were performed using Welch’s t test, Pearson’s chi-square test, or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables..

Results: Labial adhesion was identified in 22 of 500 girls, giving a prevalence of 4.4%. Nineteen cases (3.8%) were partial adhesions and three (0.6%) were complete adhesions. The mean age was 36.7 ± 15.2 months in the adhesion group and 38.7 ± 16.5 months in the non-adhesion group (p = 0.554). Histories of atopic skin disease, diaper dermatitis, UTI, and toilet training status did not differ significantly between groups (all p > 0.05). Among girls with labial adhesion, 54.5% were still using diapers, 81.8% lived in urban areas, and 63.7% had mothers with high school educational levels.

Conclusion: Labial adhesion was detected in 4.4% of girls attending routine pediatric visits in this cohort. Most cases were partial and were recognized during routine examination rather than because of symptoms. These findings support careful genital examination during well-child visits and suggest that larger multicenter studies are needed to clarify which clinical factors are independently associated with labial adhesion.

Keywords: labial adhesion, labial synechiae, prepubertal girls, prevalence, genital examination, well-child visit

References

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The Journal of Turkish Family Physician (e-ISSN 2148-550X) is a peer-reviewed national periodical journal published four times a year, quarterly on-line only. The journal can include all scientific, evidence-based articles in both Turkish and English, such as research articles, case reports, reviews, letters to the editor, national and international scientific documents and translations, which are related to general medicine and family medicine and primary health care services.

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