Investigation of restless legs syndrome and coronavirus anxiety level in adults during the coronavirus pandemic

Restless Legs Syndrome is a movement disorder that is common in the community but often delayed in diagnosis and negatively affects quality of life. Behavioral changes caused by the coronavirus outbreak may worsen or trigger RLS symptoms in susceptible individuals. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the frequency of RLS, whether RLS complaints changed with the pandemic, coronavirus anxiety level, and the relationship between RLS and coronavirus anxiety in adult patients who came to the family medicine outpatient clinic. 350 people in the 20-65 age group who came to the Family Medicine Polyclinic for any reason were included in the study. The volunteers filled out a questionnaire inquiring about their sociodemographic characteristics, chronic diseases, treatments they used, RLS diagnostic criteria, RLS severity scale, whether they had Covid 19 infection, whether they were vaccinated against Covid 19, whether RLS symptoms changed with the pandemic, and the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale. Of 350 volunteers, 212 (60,6%) were female and 138 (39,4%) were male. The mean age of the participants was 34.75 ± 10.32 years. RLS was diagnosed in 149 (42,6%) participants, and coronavirus anxiety was detected in 73 (20,8%) participants. In the light of the data we obtained from the survey findings, we found a scientifically significant link between RLS and coronavirus anxiety. As the anxiety rate increases, the severity of RLS also increases. Keywords: Restless Legs Syndrome, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, Covid-19