The seasonal pattern of restless legs syndrome in a sample from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service national database

Seong Min Oh, Kyung Lak Son, Seok Jin Choi, Mi Hyun Lee, So Young Yoon, Yu Jin Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Study Objectives: To assess the seasonality of restless legs syndrome (RLS) using data from the Korean national health insurance database. Methods:We retrospectively reviewed a randomly selected sample representing 3%of the national health insurance claims database in South Korea. From this sample, we obtained the monthly numbers of patients with RLS and diagnoses from 2009 to 2016, along with prescriptions for monthly dopamine agonists and clonazepam for patients with RLS from 2009 to 2013. Total dopamine agonist and clonazepam doses were converted to levodopa-equivalent doses, and the monthly cumulative prescription dose was calculated. Cosinor analysis was used to evaluate the seasonal pattern of each variable. Results: This study included 11,466 patients with RLS and their diagnoses and 4,887 prescriptions for dopamine agonists and clonazepam. There were significant seasonal patterns in the numbers of patients with RLS (P <.001) and diagnoses (P <.001), both of which peaked in August. The magnitude of the greatest difference in the number of patientswithRLS between August (highest) and February (lowest)was 29.96% (95% confidence interval, 24.03-100.80), and that of the number of RLS diagnoses was 39.56% (95% confidence interval, 31.24-47.89). The cumulative prescription dose of medication showed no significant seasonality. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the prevalence of RLS is seasonally affected, with an increase during summer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1051-1056
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Volume17
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2021

Keywords

  • National health insurance
  • Restless legs syndrome
  • Seasonality
  • South Korea
  • Willis-Ekbom disease

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