Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Soh, Sharon H. L.
• See, Anna
• Teo, Neville W. Y.
• Tan, Hiang Khoon
• Palaniappan, Gautham
• Lim, Melvin L. A.
• Kadir, Hanis B. Abdul
• Toh, Song Tar

Titel

Prevalence of olfactory and taste dysfunction in COVID-19 patients: a community care facility study

Ist Teil von

• European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology, 2021-09, Vol.278 (9), p.3375-3380

Ort / Verlag

Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Purpose We aim to study the prevalence of olfactory and taste dysfunction (OTD) in subjects residing in a Community Care Facility (CCF), a center unique to Singapore that is dedicated to isolate foreign workers with COVID-19 infection who have mild disease with minimal or no symptoms. Methods This is a cross-sectional study analyzing data prospectively collected from COVID-19-positive subjects who were admitted into a single-center Singapore EXPO CCF from 1st May 2020 to 1st July 2020. The following variables were collected: age, gender, ethnicity, anosmia, ageusia and acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms. Symptoms of anosmia and ageusia were self-declared via a mandatory questionnaire administered on admission. Results A total of 1983 subjects were included. The overall prevalence of anosmia and ageusia is 3.0% and 2.6%, respectively. 58% of anosmic subjects have co-existent ageusia and 72.6% of anosmic subjects have no concurrent sinonasal symptoms. OTD is less likely to present in subjects who are asymptomatic for ARI, compared to those symptomatic for ARI (anosmia: 2.0% versus 4.4% p  = 0.002; ageusia: 1.6% versus 4.2% p  < 0.001). There is a difference in the prevalence of OTD between the different ethnic groups (Indian, Chinese, Bangladeshi and Others), with Chinese and Bangladeshi reporting a higher prevalence ( p  < 0.043) Conclusion The true prevalence of OTD in COVID-19-positive subjects may be low with aggressive screening of all subjects, including those asymptomatic for ARI.