Covid-19 affects taste independently of smell : results from a combined chemosensory home test and online survey from a global cohort (N=10,953)
People often confuse smell loss with taste loss, so it is unclear how much gustatory function is reduced in patients self-reporting taste loss. Our pre-registered cross-sectional study design included an online survey in 12 languages with instructions for self-administering chemosensory tests with ten household items. Between June 2020 and March 2021, 10,953 individuals participated. Of these, 3,356 self-reported a positive and 602 a negative COVID-19 diagnosis (COVID+ and COVID-, respectively); 1,267 were awaiting test results (COVID?). The rest reported no respiratory illness and were grouped by symptoms: sudden smell/taste changes (STC, N=4,445), other symptoms excluding smell or taste loss (OthS, N=832), and no symptoms (NoS, N=416). Taste, smell, and oral irritation intensities and self-assessed abilities were rated on visual analog scales. Compared to the NoS group, COVID+ was associated with a 21% reduction in taste (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 15-28%), 47% in smell (95%-CI: 37-56%), and 17% in oral irritation (95%-CI: 10-25%) intensity. In all groups, perceived intensity of smell (r=0.84), taste (r=0.68), and oral irritation (r=0.37) was correlated. Our findings suggest most reports of taste dysfunction with COVID-19 were genuine and not due to misinterpreting smell loss as taste loss (i.e., a classical taste-flavor confusion). Assessing smell and taste intensity of household items is a promising, cost-effective screening tool that complements self-reports and helps to disentangle taste loss from smell loss. However, it does not replace standardized validated psychophysical tests.
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| Medienart: |
E-Artikel |
| Erscheinungsjahr: |
2023 |
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| Erschienen: |
2023 |
| Enthalten in: |
Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2023 |
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| Enthalten in: |
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences - (2023) vom: 18. Jan. |
| Sprache: |
Englisch |
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| Beteiligte Personen: |
Nguyen, Ha [VerfasserIn] |
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Date Revised 16.02.2024 published: Electronic UpdateIn: Chem Senses. 2023 Jun 23;:. - PMID 37350646 Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE |
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| doi: |
10.1101/2023.01.16.23284630 |
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| funding: |
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| Förderinstitution / Projekttitel: |
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| PPN (Katalog-ID): |
NLM352219122 |
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| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Covid-19 affects taste independently of smell |b results from a combined chemosensory home test and online survey from a global cohort (N=10,953) |
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| 500 | |a published: Electronic | ||
| 500 | |a UpdateIn: Chem Senses. 2023 Jun 23;:. - PMID 37350646 | ||
| 500 | |a Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE | ||
| 520 | |a People often confuse smell loss with taste loss, so it is unclear how much gustatory function is reduced in patients self-reporting taste loss. Our pre-registered cross-sectional study design included an online survey in 12 languages with instructions for self-administering chemosensory tests with ten household items. Between June 2020 and March 2021, 10,953 individuals participated. Of these, 3,356 self-reported a positive and 602 a negative COVID-19 diagnosis (COVID+ and COVID-, respectively); 1,267 were awaiting test results (COVID?). The rest reported no respiratory illness and were grouped by symptoms: sudden smell/taste changes (STC, N=4,445), other symptoms excluding smell or taste loss (OthS, N=832), and no symptoms (NoS, N=416). Taste, smell, and oral irritation intensities and self-assessed abilities were rated on visual analog scales. Compared to the NoS group, COVID+ was associated with a 21% reduction in taste (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 15-28%), 47% in smell (95%-CI: 37-56%), and 17% in oral irritation (95%-CI: 10-25%) intensity. In all groups, perceived intensity of smell (r=0.84), taste (r=0.68), and oral irritation (r=0.37) was correlated. Our findings suggest most reports of taste dysfunction with COVID-19 were genuine and not due to misinterpreting smell loss as taste loss (i.e., a classical taste-flavor confusion). Assessing smell and taste intensity of household items is a promising, cost-effective screening tool that complements self-reports and helps to disentangle taste loss from smell loss. However, it does not replace standardized validated psychophysical tests | ||
| 650 | 4 | |a Preprint | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Albayay, Javier |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Höchenberger, Richard |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Bhutani, Surabhi |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Boesveldt, Sanne |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Busch, Niko A |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Croijmans, Ilja |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Cooper, Keiland W |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a de Groot, Jasper H B |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Farruggia, Michael C |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Fjaeldstad, Alexander W |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Hayes, John E |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Hummel, Thomas |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Joseph, Paule V |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Laktionova, Tatiana K |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Thomas-Danguin, Thierry |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
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| 700 | 1 | |a Parma, Valentina |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Pepino, M Yanina |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Ohla, Kathrin |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
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