Patient-Reported Prevalence, Characteristics, and Impact of Leg Cramps in an Urban Primary Care Clinic

Thank you for sharing your insightful analyses of patient-reported leg cramp prevalence and demographic trends within an urban primary care clinic setting. Given that at least 50% of your sample of patients reported experiencing leg cramps, the importance of this area of research is substantial.

However, we would like to pose several questions to the authors: Have you considered expanding your work to include non-English speakers in future studies? While we acknowledge the inherent challenges of involving non-English speakers in research, it is noteworthy to consider that this demographic often engages in labor-intensive jobs. As a result, it is reasonable to assume that this group could be more prone to injuries such as leg cramps. Therefore, including non-English-speaking patients in future studies could contribute to more comprehensive and representative findings to inform primary care physicians caring for diverse patient populations.

We also think it is important to mention how uncommon it was for patients to report leg cramps to their primary care physician. This could mean the opportunity to discuss benefits and harms of potential treatment options with their patients was missed. It also opens the possibility that unmentioned leg cramps could be an indication of other diagnoses, meaning it could be used as a starting point into investigating a patient’s condition. Given that leg cramp research is understudied, it is important to acknowledge that this issue is overlooked easily by both patients and physicians. Are you planning on creating education materials for both primary care physicians and patients centered on increasing awareness of leg cramps and prompting discussion during routine consultations?