To the Editor.

The Kaplan et al article “Screening Dipstick Urinalysis: A Time to Change,” published in the December 1997Pediatrics, cites a dated revision of the Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine's (COMPAM) policy statement “Recommendations for Preventive Health Care.” The authors based their analysis on a 1991 schedule that was revised in 1995 (Pediatrics, August 1995). The current schedule recommends urinalysis at 5 and 15 years of age as opposed to the four times cited in the article. If the authors had used the 1995 schedule as the basis for their analysis, the economic conclusions would have been quite different. I am pleased to note that the Committee did respond to the request in the title of the article: it did acknowledge that it was time to change the urinalysis recommendations.