Restless legs syndrome and pregnancy in Kayseri, Turkey: A hospital based survey

The prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is low in the general population in Turkey. To assess the prevalence of RLS in pregnancy, a hospital-based survey assessing symptoms of RLS and other sleep problems was performed through face-to-face interviews and physical examination on 983 pregnant women from 11 hospitals in the two urban and four suburban areas of Kayseri, Turkey, at the time of delivery and 6 months after delivery. RLS is diagnosed clinically by means of the four essential criteria of the International RLS Study Group. A total of 103 women reported the occurrence of RLS symptoms during pregnancy, giving an RLS prevalence rate of 10.48%, with presence of symptoms more than three times per month, which decreased to 2.9% after 6 months. A significant relationship was observed between RLS and the number of previous pregnancies: women who had one child were compared with women who had 2-3 children (odds ratio [OR] = 1.441, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.894-2.324), and women who had >= 4 children (OR = 2.530, 95% CI, 1.377-4.650). Patients with and without the RLS syndrome were similar in respect to distributions of age, income level, career, iron and folate therapy, sleep habits, and sleep problems. The prevalence of RLS among pregnant women is low, like the low prevalence in the general population in Eastern European and/or Asian populations