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Restless legs syndrome and cerebrovascular/cardiovascular events: Systematic review and meta‐analysis
Author(s) -
Katsanos A. H.,
Kosmidou M.,
Konitsiotis S.,
Tsivgoulis G.,
Fiolaki A.,
Kyritsis A. P.,
Giannopoulos S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/ane.12848
Subject(s) - medicine , confounding , meta analysis , hazard ratio , odds ratio , diabetes mellitus , observational study , prospective cohort study , hyperlipidemia , restless legs syndrome , cardiology , confidence interval , neurology , endocrinology , psychiatry
Objective We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis to evaluate the proposed association of restless legs syndrome (RLS) with cerebrovascular/cardiovascular outcomes. Methods We calculated the corresponding odds ratios on the prevalence of cerebrovascular/cardiovascular risk factors and standardized mean differences on the reported mean age at baseline between RLS patients and controls. We also calculated the corresponding risk ratios and adjusted for potential confounders hazard ratios (HRs adjusted ) on the reported outcomes of interest between RLS patients and controls. Results We identified 8 eligible studies (644 506 patients, mean age: 60.2 years, 36.2% males; 3.3% with RLS). RLS patients were found to have significantly higher prevalence of hypertension ( P = .002), diabetes ( P = .003) and hyperlipidemia ( P = .010) compared to controls. In the unadjusted analyses of prospective observational studies, RLS patients were found to have significantly higher risk for cerebrovascular ischaemia ( P = .01) and all‐cause mortality ( P = .04) compared to controls during follow‐up, while in the adjusted for potential confounders analyses RLS patients were only found to have a higher risk of all‐cause mortality (HR adjusted=1.52, 95% CI: 1.17‐1.97, P = .002). Conclusions The present report does not provide evidence for an increased risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events in RLS patients, which highlights the vast presence of confounding factors.