Abstract

Restless legs syndrome is a neuromotor problem which is more common among pregnant women. Several studies have reported different prevalences for this disorder. Combining the results of these studies reveals reliable evidences for policymakers. This study aims to estimate the total prevalence of restless legs syndrome in pregnant women using meta-analysis. Different databanks (PubMed, Web of Sciences, EMBASE, EBSCO, Ovid, Scopus and Google Scholar) were searched using relevant keywords. After limiting the search strategy, reviewing the abstracts and full texts and quality assessment, eligible papers were selected for meta-analysis. Cochrane and I-squared indices were used to detect the degree of heterogeneity. The point prevalences were combined using random effects model. Studies that influenced the heterogeneity were detected using sensitivity analysis, while meta-regression models were applied to determine the factors that most affected the heterogeneity. Out of 26 eligible articles, 20.5 of pregnant women (95 confidence interval 16.5-24.2) were suffering from restless legs syndrome compared to 2.9 in Japan to 43.7 in Iran. Our meta-analysis showed that approximately one-fifth of pregnant women in the world have restless leg syndrome.