The Humanistic and Economic Burden of Restless Legs Syndrome

Objectives To evaluate the humanistic and economic burden of a restless legs syndrome (RLS) diagnosis with regard to health-related quality of life, work productivity loss, healthcare resource use, and direct and indirect costs. Study Design Self-reported data came from the 2012 National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS), a large, annual, nationally representative cross-sectional general health survey of US adults. Methods RLS patients (n = 2,392) were matched on demographic and health characteristics to Non-RLS respondents via propensity score matching differences between groups were tested with Bivariate and multivariable analyses. Results RLS patients had significantly lower health-related quality of life scores: Mental Component Summary (44.60 vs. 48.92, p<.001), Physical Component Summary (40.57 vs. 46.78, p<.001), Health Utilities (. 63 vs..71, p<.001) and higher levels of work productivity loss in the past seven days including absenteeism (8.1% vs. 9.3%, p<.001), presenteeism (26.5% vs. 15.8%, p<.001), and overall productivity loss (30.1% vs. 18.1%, p<.001) as well as general activity impairment (46.1% vs. 29.7%, p<.001). RLS patients had significantly higher healthcare resource use in the past 6 months than non-RLS patients: healthcare provider visits (7.46 vs. 4.42%, p<.001), ER visits (0.45 vs. 0.24, p<.001), and hospitalizations (0.24 vs. 0.15, p<.001). RLS patients also had higher estimated direct and indirect costs than non-RLS patients. Finally, it was found that across outcomes increasing severity is associated with increased economic and humanistic burden for RLS patients. Conclusions RLS patients suffer a greater humanistic and economic burden than those without RLS. Moreover as severity increases so does the burden of RLS.