Prevalence and clinical features of restless legs syndrome among Japanese pregnant women without gestational complications

Abstract

To determine the prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) among Japanese pregnant women without complications, and to clarify the correlation between RLS and clinical outcomes, RLS screening was conducted using the Johns Hopkins Telephone Diagnostic Interview for 140 pregnant women in their third trimester. The frequency of positive RLS screening test was 15.7%. No significant differences were found in the hemoglobin, ferritin, and folate levels and in the delivery outcomes between the RLS and control groups. In the future, it will be necessary to clarify whether a similarly high prevalence of RLS exists in Japanese pregnant women with complications.

Characteristics of sleep/wake problems and delivery outcomes among pregnant Japanese women without gestational complications

“…However, no other pregnancyrelated complication was observed. While there are some reports of an association between RLS/WED and gestational complications [11,32] as well as delivery outcomes [11,14], other studies did not observe an association between RLS/WED and delivery outcomes [15,31,32]. Although we cannot assume an association between maternal sleep/wake problems and the stillbirth in this case observed here, further studies are needed to clarify the influence of RLS/WED on delivery outcomes.…”

“…However, the presence of RLS/WED did not affect EDS, insomnia symptoms, or subjective sleep quality. In pregnant Japanese women without gestational complications, few severe cases of RLS/WED have been reported, and almost all RLS/WED patients reported only mild to moderate symptoms [15]. Among 8 patients suspected with RLS/WED during the third trimester of pregnancy in this study, 7 reported moderate to severe symptoms.…”

“…Moreover, these maternal sleep/wake problems affect cesarean delivery, preterm birth rates, rates of children born small-and large-for-gestational-age, and admission rates to the neonatal intensive care unit [6,8,[11][12][13][14]. However, findings are inconsistent, and discrepancies among studies are thought to be influenced by methodological differences across studies [6,8,12,13,15]. In addition, mutual interactions among different types of sleep/wake problems cannot be ignored.…”

Characteristics of sleep/wake problems and delivery outcomes among pregnant Japanese women without gestational complications

“…However, no other pregnancy-related complication was observed. While there are some reports of an association between RLS/WED and gestational complications [11,32] as well as delivery outcomes [11,14], other studies did not observe an association between RLS/WED and delivery outcomes [15,31,32]. Although we cannot assume an association between maternal sleep/wake problems and the stillbirth in this case observed here, further studies are needed to clarify the influence of RLS/WED on delivery outcomes.…”

“…Also, these maternal sleep/wake problems affect cesarean delivery, preterm birth rates, rates of children born small-and large-for-gestational-age, and admission rates to the neonatal intensive care unit [6,8,[11][12][13][14]. However, findings are inconsistent, and discrepancies among studies are thought to be influenced by methodological differences across studies [6,8,12,13,15]. Also, mutual interactions among different types of sleep/wake problems cannot be ignored.…”