The effects of prior diseases on the change of taste and smell in the COVID-19 patients: Based onglobal consortium for chemosensory research (GCCR) study

ABSTRACT

Objectives: In this study, we propose to mine the GCCR database to capture the features of the prior diseases on the change of taste and smell in the COVID- 19 patients. Methods: The study information and detailed research plan are available on OSF individual homepage (https// osf.io/ax3p5/). We used mixed linear regression models to test our hypothesis and the p-value of interaction will be concerned. Results: Overall, we got the final sample (n=26468), the final samples included 12438 participants, who were diagnosed with COVID-19. In the 12438 participants, the prior conditions were following 1985 patients reported high blood pressure, 2046 patients reported obesity, 1368 patients reported they had lung disease (asthma/COPD), 1104 patients reported they had chronic sinus problems, 3562 patients reported they had seasonal allergies/hay fever. Multivariate regression analysis found that for patients with chronic sinusitis with COVID-19, the degree of smell and taste disorder is higher than that of patients with non-chronic sinusitis. Chronic sinusitis and COVID- 19 have an interactive effect on smell disorder (P<0.05), the status of state and other prior diseases will overestimate. The impact of COVID-19 on the degree of smell/taste loss, the recovery degree of smell/taste of patients with seasonal allergies/hay fever, were statistically significant in the three calibration models (P<0.05). Conclusion: COVID-19 participants who had more or more than one prior disease, those participants have worse smell/taste loss than those participants who had not the prior disease. This study may help us understand the possible involvement of comorbidities in COVID-19 patients who lose smell or taste and raise the concern of chemosensory dysfunction and commodity with COVID-19.