Prevalence of Restless Legs Syndrome in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Introduction: In recent years, different values of the general prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) have been reported in various studies and its related factors in Iranian society are not known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with RLS in Iran by metaanalysis. Methods: This study was performed based on the PRISMA checklist. There was a time limit from July 1, 2014, to November 11, 2019, for documents obtained from English and Persian databases such as MagIran, SID, MedLib, IranMedex, IranDoc, Civilica, Islamic Science Citation (ISC), Web of Science, Science Direct, Pubmed, Scopus, Springer, and Google Scholar. Comprehensive Meta-analysis (CMA-2) software was used to analyze the data by meta-analysis random- effects model. Results: The prevalence of RLS was estimated to be 32.9% (95% CI: 22.9- 44.7) in 24 studies with 26474 Iranian subjects that 65.9% of whom were women. The prevalence of this disorder was 47.6% in Iranian women (95% CI: 28.7-67.2) and 36.7% in Iranian men (95% CI: 21.4-55.3). The most and the least prevalence of RLS based on the geographical region were respectively in the east (44.3%) and north of the country (15.5%) and this difference was significant based on meta-regression (p 0.05). The prevalence of this syndrome was 50% in hemodialysis patients, 35% in other diseases, 25.7% in pregnant women, 20.2% in elderly and 13.8% in adults. Conclusion: The prevalence of RLS in Iran is higher than in other parts of the world based on different studies. Therefore, early detection, prevention and treatment of this disorder in adults are essential.