Lifestyle factors and risk of restless legs syndrome: Prospective Cohort study

Abstract

We conducted a prospective study to examine the association between lifestyle factors (i.e., obesity, physical activity, smoking, intake of alcohol and caffeine, and overall diet quality) and the risk of developing restless legs syndrome (RLS). The study population included 12,812 men participating in Health Professionals Follow-up Study and 42,728 women participating in the Nurses’ Health study II, free of RLS at baseline (2002 for the HPFS and 2005 for the NHS II) and free of diabetes and arthritics through follow-up. RLS was assessed via a set of questions recommended by International Restless Legs Syndrome Study group. The Information was collected on height, weight, level of physical activity, dietary intake, and smoking status via questionnaires. During 4–6 years of follow-up, we identified 1,538 incident RLS cases. Participants with normal weight, and who were physically active, non-smoker, and with some alcohol consumption tended to have a lower risk of developing RLS. When we combined the effects of these four factors together, we observed a dose response relationship between the increased number of healthy lifestyle factors and a low risk of RLS: the adjusted pooled relative risk was 0.60 (95% CI: 0.42–0.86) for 4 vs.0 healthy factors ( P trend = 0.01), after adjusting for age, depression, and other potential confounders. In contrast, we did not observe significant associations between caffeine consumption, diet quality, as assessed by the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, and altered RLS risk in men and women. Several modified lifestyle factors may play an important role in RLS risk. Funding by government grant: 5R01NS062879-02 (PI: Xiang Gao). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.