Prospective Study of Restless Leg Syndrome

描述(由首席研究人员提供)：不宁腿综合症(RLS)是一种常见的运动障碍，其特征是几乎无法抗拒移动腿的冲动。根据最近的估计，它影响了5%-20%的成年人，并经常对睡眠、日常活动和生活质量产生重大影响。然而，RLS的病因仍不清楚。对生活方式因素进行有效评估的大型、特征良好的队列研究可以提供关键信息，并导致预防和治疗的新方法。特别是，鉴于RLS综合征的高患病率，有必要对RLS的临床影响进行进一步的大型前瞻性研究。由于大多数RLS患者(约90%)仍未得到诊断，基于临床系列的研究可能不能充分代表该病的谱系和自然病史。一些研究，主要是横断面研究发现，RLS患者患一些慢性病(如心血管疾病和帕金森氏病)的患病率更高，死亡风险也更高。我们建议在这里记录两个大型和成熟的队列的女性和男性参与者中RLS的发生情况，这两个队列是卫生专业人员跟踪研究(HPFS)和护士健康研究II(NHS II)，目的是解决与RLS的病因和临床影响相关的几个重要假说。HPFS和NHS II分别于1986年和成立，包括51,529名男性卫生专业人员(1986年为45岁至70岁)和116,678名中年女性注册护士(为25岁至42岁)。自2002年以来，HPFS和NHS II分别使用标准化问题收集了RLS的信息。我们将在HPFS(2002-2010)和NHS II(2005-2011年)中调查1)献血、肥胖、遗传因素是否与RLS风险相关；以及2)RLS是否与慢性病(冠心病、中风、高血压、帕金森病和勃起功能障碍)和死亡率的增加相关。我们预计将能够记录5167个流行的RLS案例和935个偶发RLS案例，这将提供前所未有的能力来检验所提出的假设。此外，我们队列中RLS发生情况的记录是大量信息库的关键组成部分，这些信息库包括对生活方式的几个方面进行多项有效的评估，包括对男性和女性16年来的饮食和健康习惯进行评估，并前瞻性地收集血液和DNA样本。这一信息库是独一无二的，将对未来RLS、生物标记物和遗传特征的研究具有重要意义。 公共卫生相关性：这项应用的主要目的是检查献血、肥胖和遗传成分是否影响不宁腿综合症的风险，以及不宁腿综合征是否会增加慢性病和死亡率的风险。

DESCRIPTION (provided by principal investigator): The restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a common movement disorder, characterized by an almost irresistible urge to move the legs. According to recent estimates, it affects 5-20 percent of adults and often has a substantial impact on sleep, daily activities and quality of life. However, the etiology of RLS remains unknown. Large, well-characterized cohort studies with validated assessment of lifestyle factors could provide critical information and lead to new approaches for prevention and treatment. Particularly, there is a need of further large prospective studies on the clinical impact of RLS given a high prevalence of the syndrome. Because the majority of RLS patients (~90 percent) remain undiagnosed, studies based on clinical series may not adequately represent the spectrum and natural history of the disease. Some studies, primarily cross-sectional, found that RLS patients had a higher prevalence of a number of chronic diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease and Parkinson's disease), and an increased risk of mortality. We propose here to document the occurrence of RLS among female and male participants of two large and well established cohorts, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) and the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II), for the purpose of addressing several important hypotheses related to the etiology and clinical impacts of RLS. The HPFS and NHS II were initiated in 1986 and 1989 respectively, including 51,529 male health professionals (aged 45-70 in 1986) and 116,678 middle-aged female registered nurses (aged 25-42 in 1989). Information of RLS, using standardized questions, has been collected since 2002 in the HPFS and 2005 in the NHS II. We will investigate 1) whether blood donation, obesity, genetic components are associated with RLS risk during 4-6 years of follow-up; and 2) whether RLS is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases (coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, Parkinson's disease and erectile dysfunction) and mortality in the HPFS (2002-2010) and the NHS II (2005-2011). We expect to be able to document 5167 prevalent and 935 incident RLS cases, which will provide unprecedented power to test the proposed hypotheses. In addition, documentation of the occurrence of RLS in our cohorts is the critical component of a large bank of information that includes multiple and validated assessments of several aspects of lifestyle, including diet and health habits, over a period of 16 years in men and women, and prospectively collected blood and DNA samples. This bank of information is unique and will be of significance for future investigations on RLS and biomarkers and genetic characteristics. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The primary aim of this application is to examine whether blood donation, obesity and genetic components influence risk of restless legs syndrome and whether restless legs syndrome increases risk of chronic diseases and mortality.