Olfactory-related Quality of Life Adjustments in Smell Loss during the Coronavirus-19 Pandemic.
Am J Rhinol Allergy
; 36(2): 253-260, 2022 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1488378
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Previous studies provided the first evidence that the importance of olfaction decreases with the duration of olfactory dysfunction (OD).OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate differences in olfactory-related quality of life (QoL) between patients with new-onset and persistent smell loss (>4 weeks) during the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic and patients with persistent postinfectious OD (PIOD) that were recruited before the pandemic.METHODS:
This was a retrospective study that included 149 patients with self-reported OD. The olfactory-related QoL was measured using the questionnaire of OD (QOD). The QOD measures the degree to which patients (i) adjust and cope with smell loss (QOD-positive statement [QOD-PS]), (ii) suffer from distorted odor perceptions (QOD-parosmia [QOD-PAR]), and (iii) suffer from smell loss in general (QOD-negative statement [QOD-NS]). Self-perceived chemosensory function, demographics, olfactory function, and duration of smell loss were evaluated. Analyses of variance were used to depict differences in QoL-outcomes between different OD groups.RESULTS:
All patients included during the COVID-19 pandemic reported an extensive loss of chemosensory functions of smell, taste, and flavor perception. Psychophysical retronasal screening testing showed olfactory impairments in more than half of these patients. One-way analysis of variance and posthoc tests revealed that the QOD-NS was significantly higher in the new-onset OD group than the PIOD group. At the same time, the QOD-PS score was significantly higher in the PIOD and the persistent COVID-19 OD group than in the new-onset OD group.CONCLUSION:
We showed that patients with persistent OD experienced better olfactory-related adjustment and lower QoL-impairment scores than those with recent-onset smell loss, suggesting that the olfactory-related QoL might change as a function of time after symptom onset.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Olfaction Disorders
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Am J Rhinol Allergy
Journal subject:
Allergy and Immunology
/
Otolaryngology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
19458924211053118
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