Prevalence of self-reported poor odor detection sensitivity: the skövde population-based study

Objective-To enable adequate planning of ENT healthcare it is important to know the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in the general population. Whether an individual will actually seek medical attention for olfactory dysfunction is likely to depend predominantly on his/her self-evaluation of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta oto-laryngologica 2004-12, Vol.124 (10), p.1171-1173
Main Authors: Nordin, Steven, Brämerson, Annika, Bende, Mats
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
adults
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
aging
Biological and medical sciences
clinical
Female
gender
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
olfaction
Olfaction Disorders - epidemiology
Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology
Prevalence
Psychology
Psykologi
SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Self Disclosure
smell
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Socialvetenskap
Sweden - epidemiology
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Summary:Objective-To enable adequate planning of ENT healthcare it is important to know the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in the general population. Whether an individual will actually seek medical attention for olfactory dysfunction is likely to depend predominantly on his/her self-evaluation of the sense of smell. This motivated an investigation of the prevalences of self-reported poorer- and better-than-normal odor detection sensitivity in the general population. Material and Methods-A random sample of 1900 adult inhabitants, stratified for age and gender, was drawn from the municipal population register of Skövde, Sweden. Subjects were asked to attend a structured interview concerning their self-evaluation of their odor detection sensitivity. Results-In total, 1387 volunteers (73% of the sample) were investigated. The overall prevalences of self-reported poorer- and better-than normal odor detection sensitivity were 15.3% and 17.4%, respectively. The prevalence of poorer sensitivity was found to increase with age, and the prevalence of better sensitivity was lower in men than women. Conclusions-Considering the fairly high participation rate in this study and the fact that the population of Skövde is representative of the general Swedish population, the obtained prevalences can be considered representative of the general Swedish adult population.
ISSN:0001-6489
1651-2251
1651-2251
DOI:10.1080/00016480410017468