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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on June 5, 2006
Chemical Senses 2006 31(6):595-598; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjj064
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A Self-administered Odor Identification Test Procedure Using the "Sniffin' Sticks"

Christian A. Mueller1, Elisabeth Grassinger1, Asami Naka1, Andreas F.P. Temmel1, Thomas Hummel2 and Gerd Kobal3

1 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Medical University of Vienna, AKH Wien, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Wien, Austria 2 Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstrasse 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany 3 Department of Pharmacology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Krankenhausstrasse 9, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany

Correspondence to be sent to: Christian Mueller, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Medical University of Vienna, AKH Wien, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Wien, Austria. e-mail: chr.mue{at}gmx.at

Assessment of smell function in clinical routine is often limited due to a lack of time and/or costs of the personnel administering the test. The aim of the present study was to validate a procedure allowing for self-administered olfactory testing in a clinical setting. Seventy-four healthy subjects (13 male, 61 female) from 18 to 30 years of age (mean 20.3 years) were tested on 2 days (interval 7–21 days, mean 8.7 days) with 16 odors of the "Sniffin' Sticks" identification test kit. On one occasion, the test was administered by an examiner. On another occasion, subjects administered the test to themselves, with the odors being identified after they had been "painted" on a sheet of paper. No significant differences were obtained between the results from both test procedures. With a maximum score of 16, assisted testing yielded a mean score of 13.7 [standard deviation (SD) 1.3] while the self-administered procedure yielded an average score of 13.8 (SD = 1.5) (P = 0.72). The mean difference between the assisted and the self-administered smell test procedures was 0.05 (SD = 1.28). The 95% confidence interval of differences ranged from –2.51 to 2.61. These results suggest that odor identification with the Sniffin' Sticks can also be administered by the subjects themselves.

Key words: clinical, olfaction, self-administration, smell, Sniffin' Sticks, test


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