Disparities in Olfactory Dysfunction in African American Individuals During COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction: COVID-19 is known to cause olfactory dysfunction (OD). African American individuals have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. To reduce health disparities related to OD, it is important to have accurate objective testing, especially for African American individuals, who have a higher disease burden. Our objective is to examine olfactory performance in African American and White study participants by comparing individual scent scores to assess potential cultural appropriateness of scent selection. Method(s) This was a cross-sectional study of healthy participants from June 2021 to April 2022. Two smelling tests were used Affordable Rapid Olfactory Measurement Array (AROMA) and Sniffin' Sticks (SST-12). Pearson correlation and chi2 tests were used to detect statistical differences. African American and White participants without sinonasal disease aged 18+ were recruited from outpatient clinics at Kansas University Medical Center and the community. The main outcome for our study is olfactory performance on smelling tests. Result(s) Of the 102 participants, 46 were African American and 56 were White. AROMA and SST-12 scores were significantly correlated in African American (P<.01) and White (P<.01) participants. African American participants scored significantly lower than their White counterparts on both tests (P<.01). AROMA, mean scores were 64.2 and 75.5 for African American and White participants, respectively. SST-12 mean scores were 84.2 and 89.9 for African American and White participants, respectively. On SST-12, 60.9% of African American and 30.4% of White participants were hyposmic, (P<.05). For 6 AROMA scents (licorice, orange, lavender, cinnamon, clove, and rosemary) and 1 SST-12 scent (pineapple) African American participants scored significantly lower than White participants (P<.05). Conclusion(s) When compared with White participants, African American participants performed worse on both smelling tests and a greater proportion were considered hyposmic. African American participants performed significantly worse than their White counterparts on several scents, raising the issue of cultural appropriateness of scents used in olfactory testing.