Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Hypertension is the primary cause of premature death in the world that leads to heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. Restless legs syndrome is one of the factors that may be associated with Hypertension. The aim of this study was determining the association between Hypertension and restless legs syndrome in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Methods: This cross-sectional study on 290 patients with cardiovascular disease admitted to hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences was done in 2016 with convenience sampling. For restless legs syndrome,  restless leg syndrome screening questionnaire was used. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and inferential using SPSS v18. The significant level for all the tests
was 0.05.

Results: 109 males and 181 females with a mean age of 56.1 ± 12.3 years participated in this study. 34.8%  of patients have high blood pressure and 27.9% had restless legs syndrome. There was a significant relationship between hypertension and restless legs syndrome; the chance for hypertension in patients with restless legs syndrome was 3.5 times more than patients without restless legs syndrome  (95% CI:2.1-6. 2, OR=3.6, p=0.0001).

Conclusion: There is a relationship between hypertension and restless legs syndrome in cardiac patients. It seems that evaluating restless legs syndrome as a risk factor for hypertension in cardiac patients is necessary.