sleep quality and restless legs syndrome among healthcare workers: shift workers and non-shift workers

background and objective : restless legs syndrome (rls) is a sleep disorder with an association to sleep quality. we investigated the sleep quality in patients with rls among health-care workers with or without shift work. materials and methods : all female health-care workers (n = 540) in four educational hospitals were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. international rls study group (irlssg) questionnaire, irlssg rating scale, pittsburgh sleep quality index (psqi), and a data collection sheet including demographic characteristics and disorders related to secondary rls were completed by study participants. results : the mean ± standard deviation (sd) age of the participants was 32.0 ± 6.8 years. the mean ± sd psqi scores were 9.03 ± 3.29 and 7.30 ± 3.67 in rls-positive and rls-negative shift workers (p = 0.002), respectively. the mean ± sd psqi scores were 7.76 ± 3.66 and 6.10 ± 3.15 in rls-positive and rls-negative non-shift workers (p = 0.005), respectively. conclusion : health-care workers have poor sleep quality aggravated with both rls and shift work. rls-positive female patients are at increased risk of poor sleep quality in both shift workers and non-shift workers with the worst score of psqi questionnaire in shift workers.