Restless Legs Syndrome Prevalence and Impact: REST General Population Study
Open accessAbstract
Background Restless legs syndrome (RLS), a common sensorimotor disorder, has a wide range of severity from merely annoying to affecting sleep and quality of life severely enough to warrant medical treatment. Previous epidemiological studies, however, have failed to determine the prevalence of those with clinically significant RLS symptoms and to examine the life effects and medical experiences of this group. Methods A total of 16 202 adults (aged >/=18 years) were interviewed using validated diagnostic questions to determine the presence, frequency, and severity of RLS symptoms; respondents reporting RLS symptoms were asked about medical diagnoses and the impact of the disorder and completed the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Criteria determined by RLS experts for medically significant RLS (frequency at least twice a week, distress at least moderate) defined "RLS sufferers" as a group most likely to warrant medical treatment. Results In all, 15 391 fully completed questionnaires were obtained; in the past year, RLS symptoms of any frequency were reported by 1114 (7.2%). Symptoms occurred at least weekly for 773 respondents (5.0%); they occurred at least 2 times per week and were reported as moderately or severely distressing by 416 (2.7%). Of those 416 (termed RLS sufferers), 337 (81.0%) reported discussing their symptoms with a primary care physician, and only 21 (6.2%) were given a diagnosis of RLS. The SF-36 scores for RLS sufferers were significantly below populatio…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
RLS is associated with a high incidence of psychosocial impairment, reduced quality of life, and increased prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders.
“recent studies have shown a high incidence of psychosocial impairment, 5-7 a reduced quality of life, 1 and an increased prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders associated with RLS. 8”
From Cognitive behavioural group therapy to improve patients' strategies for coping with restless legs syndrome: A proof-of-concept trial (2008) · cites this paper as [1]
Cites
Restless legs syndrome: diagnostic criteria, special considerations, and epidemiology
Allen, R. P., Picchietti, D., Hening, W. A., Trenkwalder, C., Walters, A. S., & Montplaisi, J. (2003) · Sleep Medicine · doi:10.1016/s1389-9457(03)00010-8 · Cited by 2,900 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Evidence‐Based Recommendations for the Assessment and Management of Sleep Disorders in Older Persons
Bloom, H. G., Ahmed, I., Alessi, C. A., Ancoli‐Israel, S., Buysse, D. J., Kryger, M. H., Phillips, B. A., Thorpy, M. J., Vitiello, M. V., & Zee, P. C. (2009) · Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02220.x · Cited by 464 · see citing works
Sleep disorders, health, and safety in police officers
Rajaratnam, S. M. W., Barger, L. K., Lockley, S. W., Shea, S. A., Wang, W., Landrigan, C. P., O’Brien, C. S., Qadri, S., Sullivan, J. P., Cade, B. E., et al. (2011) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2011.1851 · Cited by 405 · see citing works
Wenning, G. K., Kiechl, S., Seppi, K., Müller, J., Högl, B., Saletu, M., Rungger, G., Gasperi, A., Willeit, J., & Poewe, W. (2005) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(05)70226-x · Cited by 302 · see citing works
Adult ADHD and Comorbid Somatic Disease: A Systematic Literature Review
Instanes, J. T., Klungsøyr, K., Halmøy, A., Fasmer, O. B., & Haavik, J. (2018) · Journal of Attention Disorders · doi:10.1177/1087054716669589 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Parasomnias: An Updated Review
Howell, M. J. (2012) · Neurotherapeutics · doi:10.1007/s13311-012-0143-8 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Lugo, J., Fadeuilhe, C., Gisbert, L., Setien, I., Delgado, M., Corrales, M., Richarte, V., & Ramos-Quiroga, J. A. (2020) · European Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2020.07.004 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Innes, K. E., & Selfe, T. K. (2012) · Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine · doi:10.1155/2012/294058 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
NonREM Disorders of Arousal and Related Parasomnias: An Updated Review
Irfan, M., Schenck, C. H., & Howell, M. J. (2021) · Neurotherapeutics · doi:10.1007/s13311-021-01011-y · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Hornyak, M., Grossmann, C., Kohnen, R., Schlatterer, M., Richter, H., Voderholzer, U., Riemann, D., & Berger, M. (2008) · Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry · doi:10.1136/jnnp.2007.138867 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Restless Nocturnal Eating: A Common Feature of Willis-Ekbom Syndrome (RLS)
Howell, M. J., & Schenck, C. H. (2012) · Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine · doi:10.5664/jcsm.2036 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Weinstock, L. B., Fern, S. E., & Duntley, S. P. (2008) · Digestive Diseases and Sciences · doi:10.1007/s10620-007-0021-0 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Donovan, L. M., Shah, A., Chai-Coetzer, C. L., Barbé, F., Ayas, N. T., & Kapur, V. K. (2020) · Chest · doi:10.1016/j.chest.2019.10.002 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Alexander, J., Potamianou, H., Xing, J., Deng, L., Karagiannidis, I., Tsetsos, F., Drineas, P., Tarnok, Z., Rizzo, R., Wolanczyk, T., et al. (2016) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2016.00428 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Silva, C., Peralta, A. R., & Bentes, C. (2017) · Sleep Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2017.06.023 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Treating desires not diseases: a pill for every ill and an ill for every pill?
Triggle, D. J. (2007) · Drug Discovery Today · doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2006.12.001 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
- Authors
- Allen, R. P., Walters, A. S., Montplaisir, J., Hening, W., Myers, A., Bell, T. J., & Ferini-Strambi, L.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Seton Hall University (US)
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- RTI International (US)
- Venue
- Archives of Internal Medicine
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2005-06-13
- Volume
- 165
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1286
- ISSN
- 0003-9926 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2072667894
- Cited by
- 1,182
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 55 · 2016: 58 · 2015: 75 · 2014: 67 · 2013: 79 · 2012: 61
- FWCI
- 41.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Archives of Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- INFM-OAR (INFN Catania) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- JFK Medical Center Foundation
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Johns Hopkins University
- Université de Montréal
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Restless Legs Syndrome Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
- Keywords
- restless legs syndrome, prevalence, underdiagnosis, quality of life, sleep disorders, symptom severity, chronic disease, SF-36
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Europe, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Restless Legs Syndrome, United States, Prevalence, Sickness Impact Profile
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
