Factors influencing olfactory function in an adult general population sample: the CHRIS study

Chem Senses. 2024 Mar 7:bjae011. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjae011. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe sense of smell allows for the assessment of the chemical composition of volatiles in our environment. Different factors are associated with reduced olfactory function, including age, sex, as well as health and lifestyle conditions. However, most studies that aimed at identifying the variables that drive olfactory function in the population suffered from methodological weaknesses differences in study designs and participant selection, such as the inclusion of convenience sample or only of certain age groups, or recruitment biases. We aimed to overcome these issues by investigating the Cooperative Health Research in South Tyrol (CHRIS) cohort, a population-based cohort, by using a validated odor identification test. Specifically, we hypothesized that a series of medical, demographic and lifestyle variables is associated with odor identification abilities. In addition, our goal was to provide clinicians and researchers with normative values for the Sniffin'Sticks identification set, after exclusion of individuals with impaired nasal patency. We included 6944 participants without acute nasal obstruction and assessed several biological, social, and medical parameters. A basic model determined that age, sex, years of education, and smoking status together explained roughly 13% of the total variance in the data. We further observed that variables related to medical (positive screening for...
Source: Chemical Senses - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Source Type: research