Association Between Suggestive Symptom of Restless Legs Syndrome and COVID-19 Vaccination: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objectives: Various sensory symptoms have been recognized after COVID-19 vaccination. Here, we aimed to explore the association between the suggestive symptom of restless legs syndrome (RLSss) and COVID-19 vaccination using an online survey.Methods: We prospectively studied participants who were working in our hospital after at least the first dose of the ChAdOx1 or BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. The participants were invited via smartphone messages and voluntarily filled out an online questionnaire that included adverse events after vaccination. We considered the participants as having RLSss if they reported that they had three or more symptoms in the restless legs syndrome (RLS) diagnostic criteria.Results: A total of 628 participants (506 female; mean age, 37.7±12.4 years) responded fully to our online survey. 588 participants (93.6%) received the first dose of the ChAdOx1 vaccine (BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine for 40 participants). A total of 44 out of the 628 participants (7.0%) reported that they had RLSss. Myalgia was more common in participants with RLSss than in those without RLSss (97.7% vs. 67.3%, p<0.001). Multivariate testing showed that age (odds ratio, 1.037 per 1 year increase; 95% CI, 1.004–1.071) and the presence of myalgia (odds ratio, 20.479; 95% CI, 4.266–368.206) were associated with the presence of RLSss.Conclusions: This pilot study explored RLSss after COVID-19 vaccination and the results suggested that RLS might be one of the causes of adverse symptoms after COVID-19 vaccination. Further studies are required to confirm the relationship between RLS and COVID-19 vaccination.