人们经常混淆气味损失和味觉损失,因此,目前尚不清楚自我报告味觉丧失的患者味觉功能降低了多少。我们预先注册的横断面研究设计包括一项以12种语言进行的在线调查,其中包括对10种家庭用品进行自我管理化学感应测试的说明。在2020年6月至2021年3月期间,共有10,953人参加。其中,5,225人自我报告呼吸系统疾病,并根据他们报告的COVID检测结果进行分组:COVID阳性(COVID+,N=3,356),COVID阴性(COVID-,N=602),对于那些等待测试结果的人来说是未知的COVID(COVID?,N=1,267)。报告没有呼吸道疾病的参与者按症状分组:突然的气味/味道变化(STC,N=4,445),其他不包括嗅觉或味觉丧失的症状(OthS,N=832),并且没有症状(NoS,N=416)。味道,气味,在视觉模拟量表上对口腔刺激强度和自我评估能力进行了评估。与NoS组相比,COVID+与味觉下降21%相关(95%置信区间(CI):15-28%),47%的气味(95%-CI:37-56%),口腔刺激强度为17%(95%-CI:10-25%)。在所有组中,感知的嗅觉强度(r=0.84),味道(r=0.68),与口腔刺激相关(r=0.37)。我们的研究表明,当用几乎没有嗅觉成分的刺激进行自我测试时,COVID-19阳性个体报告味觉功能障碍。评估家居用品的气味和味道强度是有希望的,具有成本效益的筛查工具,可补充自我报告,并可能有助于将味觉丧失与嗅觉丧失分开。然而,它不能取代标准化的经过验证的心理物理测试。
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 10 household items. Between June 2020 and March 2021, 10,953 individuals participated. Of these, 5,225 self-reported a respiratory illness and were grouped based on their reported COVID test results: COVID-positive (COVID+, N = 3,356), COVID-negative (COVID-, N = 602), and COVID unknown for those waiting for a test result (COVID?, N = 1,267). The participants who reported no respiratory illness were grouped by symptoms: sudden smell/taste changes (STC, N = 4,445), other symptoms excluding smell or taste changes (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. There were medium to strong correlations between perceived intensities and self-reported abilities (r = 0.84 for smell, r = 0.68 for taste, and r = 0.37 for oral irritation). Our study demonstrates that COVID-19-positive individuals report taste dysfunction when self-tested with stimuli that have little to none olfactory components. Assessing the smell and taste intensity of household items is a promising, cost-effective screening tool that complements self-reports and may help to disentangle taste loss from smell loss. However, it does not replace standardized validated psychophysical tests.