Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Hypertension is one of the most common diseases of the elderlies with highly frequent visit to doctor, leading to other diseases. Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is one of the factors that may be associated with hypertension in elderlies. The present study was implemented to investigate the association between hypertension and RLS in the senility.

Methods: This case-control study was conducted in 2016 on 125 elderlies sited in personal home (25 people with hypertension and 100 without it) using available sampling method. RLS screening questionnaire, blood pressure chart and demographic form were completed by the elders. Presence of RLS was confirmed by a neurologist. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 18) statistical software, using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney-u, chi-squared and logistic regression tests. P value was less than 0.05 and it was considered as statistically significant.

Results: The mean age of samples in this survey was 73.1 ± 6.9 years. Eight (32%) of the people with hypertension and 12 (12%) of the healthy ones had RLS. The results of this study showed that there was a significant association between hypertension and RLS, and RLS in elderlies with hypertension was 3.45 times more than those with normal blood pressure (P = 0.015, OR = 3.45, CI 95% = 1.2-9.7).

Conclusions: There is an association between hypertension and RLS in elderlies. Therefore, screening procedure to identify hypertensive people with RLS seems necessary.