Abstract Introduction
Smell plays an important
role in the
maintenance of
health and
quality of life of the general
population.
Health workers with
olfactory impairment may not be able to help
diagnose certain
diseases, and subsequently increase the
risk of hazardous events and
mortality among those affected. '
Odor learning' requires repeated experiences with different smells to develop a discriminatory
ability, and this is a process that takes years. Because of that,
physicians of certain
medical specialities have better
odor detection than others. Objective To study the olfactory performance and associated factors of
otorhinolaryngology residents compared with residents of different
medical specialities in a representative sample of a
tertiary hospital.
Methods The
University of
Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was used to compare olfactory performance. Clinical and epidemiological data were collected among 42
hospital residents. Results
Otorhinolaryngology residents presented an average UPSITscore of 35.0, and the other residents, a score of 32.8 (p = 0.02) Of all the residents, 40.5% showed some grade of
olfactory impairment. Half of the
females students in the first year of
residency showed olfactory dysfunction. The
multivariate analyses found age (p = 0.03; 95%
confidence interval for β = 0.33) to be an independent predictor of the UPSIT score. Conclusion The present study demonstrated that
otorhinolaryngology residents have greater olfactory capacity compared with other residents.
Future studies should explore the relevant factors of
olfactory impairment and its impact on
quality of life in this
population.