Symptoms of restless legs syndrome in a palliative care population: frequency and impact

We hypothesized that restless legs syndrome (RLS) would be common and associated with impaired quality of life (QOL) among palliative care outpatients. 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. 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). RLS appears common in palliative care outpatients and is associated with impairments in QOL.