Restless Legs risk in the biracial East Baltimore cohort

本研究的主要目的是确定不宁腿综合征（RLS）与潜在危险因素的关系：种族和身心健康。另一个目标是探索RLS与睡眠和功能/残疾的关系。分析将使用自1980年以来在东巴尔的摩卡彻地区研究（EGA）积累的数据库。关于RLS诊断特征的问题包括在EGA的当前波中。累积的数据包括受试者的人口统计学信息、社会和功能状况、身体和心理健康。大约1/3的受试者是非洲裔美国人。 具体目的：1）确定RLS在非洲裔美国人和白人人群中的患病率是否不同。临床上强烈怀疑RLS在非洲裔美国人中不太普遍，但缺乏证据。如果发现种族差异，则可能与两个人群的其他特征有关。2)确定纵向健康指标或实验室值是否为RLS的发展提供了可靠的风险指标。以往的研究表明，不良的身心健康状况与RLS有关。在EGA数据库中的纵向措施的财富提供了机会，检查RLS的关系，终身病史的身体和精神疾病。数据库中载脂蛋白E类型和铁测量的实验室值可以提供与生物变量的直接联系。3)确定RLS症状是否有助于个人的睡眠问题和功能/残疾的负担。EGA数据库中关于这些问题的信息将探索RLS是否对这些主要的公共卫生问题做出了重大贡献。 这些数据分析的价值将通过使用经验证的诊断访谈对RLS筛选问题（约20%的受试者）进行独立、设盲确认来增强。

The major goal of this study is to determine the relationship of the Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) to potential risk factors: ethnicity and both physical and mental health. Another goal is to explore the relationship of RLS to sleep and function/disability. The analysis will use the database accumulated since 1980 in the East Baltimore Cachment area study (EGA). Questions on diagnostic features of RLS are included within the current wave of EGA. Accumulated data includes information on the subjects' demographics, social and functional situation, physical and psychological health. About 1/3 of the subjects are African-American. Specific Aims: 1) To determine whether RLS has a different prevalence in the African-American and Caucasian populations. There is a strong clinical suspicion that RLS is less prevalent in African-American populations, but evidence is lacking. If ethnic differences are found, they may be related to other characteristics of the two populations. 2) To determine whether longitudinal health measures or laboratory values provide robust risk measures for development of RLS. Previous studies have indicated that both poor physical and mental health are related to RLS. The wealth of longitudinal measures in the EGA database provide the opportunity to examine RLS in relationship to lifetime histories of physical and mental disorders. Laboratory values for APO-E types and iron measures included in the database can provide direct links to biological variables. 3) To determine whether RLS symptoms contribute to the burden of sleep problems and function /disability in individuals. Information on these issues in the EGA database will exploration on whether RLS makes a significant contribution to these major public health problems. The value of these data analyses will be enhanced by the independent, blinded confirmation of the RLS screening questions (in approximately 20% of all subjects) using a validated diagnostic interview.