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Symptoms of restless legs syndrome in a palliative care population: frequency and impact
Harneet K Walia1, George Shalhoub2, Verai Ramsammy3
1Center for Sleep Disorders, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Objectives:
We hypothesized that restless legs syndrome (RLS) would be common and associated with impaired quality of life (QOL) among palliative care outpatients.
Methods:
76 palliative care clinic patients completed the National Institutes of Health restless legs syndrome (NIH-RLS) screening questionnaire. Questionnaire data was also gathered on RLS severity and RLS-related QOL, and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) was used to measure QOL. Analysis was performed for associations between RLS categorization and QOL measures.
Results:
31 patients (40.8 percent) met criteria for RLS. RLS-positive patients had moderate-to-severe RLS symptoms and impaired RLS-specific QOL. RLS-positive patients scored lower on the mental component of the SF-12 (39 +/- 11 versus 45 +/- 12, p=0.03), though not on the physical component. In a multivariate regression analysis, higher levels of RLS severity had 2-point lower SF-12 mental component scores compared to lower levels of RLS severity (p=0.04), with no difference in physical component scores (p=0.47).
Conclusion:
RLS appears common in palliative care outpatients and is associated with impairments in QOL.
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