The best COVID-19 predictor is recent smell loss: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background COVID-19 has heterogeneous manifestations, though one of the most common symptoms is a sudden loss of smell (anosmia or hyposmia). We investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19.Methods This preregistered, cross-sectional study used a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness. We quantified changes in chemosensory abilities during the course of the respiratory illness using 0-100 visual analog scales (VAS) for participants reporting a positive (C19+; n=4148) or negative (C19-; n=546) COVID-19 laboratory test outcome. Logistic regression models identified singular and cumulative predictors of COVID-19 status and post-COVID-19 olfactory recovery.Results Both C19+ and C19-groups exhibited smell loss, but it was significantly larger in C19+ participants (mean±SD, C19+: -82.5±27.2 points; C19-: -59.8±37.7). Smell loss during illness was the best predictor of COVID-19 in both single and cumulative feature models (ROC AUC=0.72), with additional features providing negligible model improvement. VAS ratings of smell loss were more predictive than binary chemosensory yes/no-questions or other cardinal symptoms, such as fever or cough. Olfactory recovery within 40 days was reported for ∼50% of participants and was best predicted by time since illness onset.Conclusions As smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19, we developed the ODoR-19 tool, a 0-10 scale to screen for recent olfactory loss. Numeric ratings ≤2 indicate high odds of symptomatic COVID-19 (4<OR<10), which can be deployed when viral lab tests are impractical or unavailable..

Medienart:

Preprint

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

bioRxiv.org - (2024) vom: 23. Apr. Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2024

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Gerkin, Richard C. [VerfasserIn]
Ohla, Kathrin [VerfasserIn]
Veldhuizen, Maria G. [VerfasserIn]
Joseph, Paule V. [VerfasserIn]
Kelly, Christine E. [VerfasserIn]
Bakke, Alyssa J. [VerfasserIn]
Steele, Kimberley E. [VerfasserIn]
Farruggia, Michael C. [VerfasserIn]
Pellegrino, Robert [VerfasserIn]
Pepino, Marta Y. [VerfasserIn]
Bouysset, Cédric [VerfasserIn]
Soler, Graciela M. [VerfasserIn]
Pereda-Loth, Veronica [VerfasserIn]
Dibattista, Michele [VerfasserIn]
Cooper, Keiland W. [VerfasserIn]
Croijmans, Ilja [VerfasserIn]
Di Pizio, Antonella [VerfasserIn]
Ozdener, M. Hakan [VerfasserIn]
Fjaeldstad, Alexander W. [VerfasserIn]
Lin, Cailu [VerfasserIn]
Sandell, Mari A. [VerfasserIn]
Singh, Preet B. [VerfasserIn]
Brindha, V. Evelyn [VerfasserIn]
Olsson, Shannon B. [VerfasserIn]
Saraiva, Luis R. [VerfasserIn]
Ahuja, Gaurav [VerfasserIn]
Alwashahi, Mohammed K. [VerfasserIn]
Bhutani, Surabhi [VerfasserIn]
D’Errico, Anna [VerfasserIn]
Fornazieri, Marco A. [VerfasserIn]
Golebiowski, Jérôme [VerfasserIn]
Hwang, Liang-Dar [VerfasserIn]
Öztürk, Lina [VerfasserIn]
Roura, Eugeni [VerfasserIn]
Spinelli, Sara [VerfasserIn]
Whitcroft, Katherine L. [VerfasserIn]
Faraji, Farhoud [VerfasserIn]
Fischmeister, Florian Ph.S [VerfasserIn]
Heinbockel, Thomas [VerfasserIn]
Hsieh, Julien W. [VerfasserIn]
Huart, Caroline [VerfasserIn]
Konstantinidis, Iordanis [VerfasserIn]
Menini, Anna [VerfasserIn]
Morini, Gabriella [VerfasserIn]
Olofsson, Jonas K. [VerfasserIn]
Philpott, Carl M. [VerfasserIn]
Pierron, Denis [VerfasserIn]
Shields, Vonnie D.C. [VerfasserIn]
Voznessenskaya, Vera V. [VerfasserIn]
Albayay, Javier [VerfasserIn]
Altundag, Aytug [VerfasserIn]
Bensafi, Moustafa [VerfasserIn]
Bock, María Adelaida [VerfasserIn]
Calcinoni, Orietta [VerfasserIn]
Fredborg, William [VerfasserIn]
Laudamiel, Christophe [VerfasserIn]
Lim, Juyun [VerfasserIn]
Lundström, Johan N. [VerfasserIn]
Macchi, Alberto [VerfasserIn]
Meyer, Pablo [VerfasserIn]
Moein, Shima T. [VerfasserIn]
Santamaría, Enrique [VerfasserIn]
Sengupta, Debarka [VerfasserIn]
Dominguez, Paloma Rohlfs [VerfasserIn]
Yanik, Hüseyin [VerfasserIn]
Hummel, Thomas [VerfasserIn]
Hayes, John E. [VerfasserIn]
Reed, Danielle R. [VerfasserIn]
Niv, Masha Y. [VerfasserIn]
Munger, Steven D. [VerfasserIn]
Parma, Valentina [VerfasserIn]

Links:

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Themen:

570
Biology

doi:

10.1101/2020.07.22.20157263

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

XBI018418570