Objective: To investigate survival in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS).
Background: Previous studies have generated inconsistent results regarding whether RLS is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and mortality.
Method: A longitudinal study of persons living in the community. RLS was diagnosed by a physician using the International RLS Study Group criteria. Mortality was analyzed using age-standardized mortality ratios (SMR: observed/expected deaths), and Cox regression analysis.
Results: Vital status was studied in a cohort of 232 patients, (181(78%) women), 96 with RLS (41.4%) with a mean RLS duration of 14.1 + 1.9 years, and 136 non-RLS (58.6%). This RLS cohort was followed for a period of 10.4 + 2.0 years. As of September 2019, 17 (7.3%) patients died (6 with RLS, 6.3%), and the most frequent cause was oncological (66.7%). A total of 944 person-years of observations were available for survival analysis. RLS was not associated with mortality in Cox regression analysis, showing a similar mortality rate to that expected for the general population, SMR=0.61 (95% CI: 0.27-1.36).
Conclusion: In this cohort, RLS was not associated with greater mortality risk compared to the general population.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
E. Cubo, C. Collazo, C. Gallego-Nieto, M. Elizari-Roncal, T. Barroso-Pérez, A. Echavarria, S. Calvo, C. Marras. Survival in restless legs syndrome: An eleven-year surveillance, community-based population study [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2020; 35 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/survival-in-restless-legs-syndrome-an-eleven-year-surveillance-community-based-population-study/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2020
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/survival-in-restless-legs-syndrome-an-eleven-year-surveillance-community-based-population-study/