olfatory and infuencing factors in Thai eldery
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Abstract
Purpose: Perception of smell allows individuals to differentiate objects and environments especially harmful objects such as toxic substances, smoke, spoiled food. Olfactory deficits, therefore, affects the quality of life and also is an early sign of degenerative brain diseases. Smell changes occur with advancing age causing widespread problems in the elderly population.
Objectives: This paper aims to study the perception of smell and determine factors affecting it in the elderly population.
Study Design: A prospective cross-sectional analytical study of elderly participants.
Methods: Participants were examined with anterior rhinoscopy and peak flow test then completed mental-state test and depression screening test using Thai MMSE 2002 and Thai 9Q respectively. Perception of smell was studied with N-butanol test (smell threshold) and 10 smell samples (smell identification)
Results: Eighty participants were enrolled in this study containing 38 males (47.5%) and 42 females (52.5%) with an average age at 65.9 years (+/-8.26 SD) with 51 years as minimum age and 84 years as maximum age. Most participants have smell threshold at the 7th sample of N-butanol. The average smell identification score of participants was at 8.66 (+/- 1.4 SD) with gasoline and jasmine as the most and least recognized smell respectively. Age, especially at age over 70 years, was found to be the only factor causing smell identification impairment (p=0.015), in contrast to other factors including gender, education, underlying diseases, smoking, depression, mild cognitive impairment.
Conclusion: Multivariate regression analysis in this study shows that advancing age decreases the perception of smell and smell identification.
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References
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