Subjective olfactory loss in older adults concurs with long-term odor identification decline.

Subjective olfactory loss in older adults concurs with long-term odor identification decline. Chem Senses. 2018 Dec 13;: Authors: Ekström I, Josefsson M, Larsson M, Rönnlund M, Nordin S, Olofsson JK Abstract Olfactory impairments may provide early indications of future health outcomes in older adults. Thus, an important question concerns whether these impairments can be self-assessed. Previous findings of cross-sectional studies indicate low correlations between self-reported olfactory function and objective olfactory performance. On the other hand, subjective olfactory impairments predict future dementia and mortality in longitudinal settings. No previous study has assessed the relationship between subjectively and objectively measured decline in olfaction over time. Based on data for 903 older adults derived from the Betula Study, a Swedish population-based prospective study, we tested whether rate of change in odor identification could be predicted from subjective olfactory decline over a time-span of 10 years during which subjective and objective odor function were assessed on two or three test-occasions. Indeed, we found that participants who experienced subjective olfactory decline over the study-period also had significantly steeper rates of decline in odor identification, even after adjusting for demographic, cognitive and genetic factors that previously have been associated with performance in odor identification. This ass...
Source: Chemical Senses - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Chem Senses Source Type: research