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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on August 10, 2006
Chemical Senses 2006 31(8):763-771; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjl019
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Olfactory Ability in the Healthy Population: Reassessing Presbyosmia

Alan Mackay-Sim1, Amy N. B. Johnston1,2, Caroline Owen3 and Thomas H. J. Burne1,4

1 Neurobiology Program, Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia 2 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia 3 Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Sensory Neuroscience Laboratory, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria 3122, Australia 4 Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Wacol, Queensland 4076, Australia

Correspondence to be sent to: Amy N. B. Johnston, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia. e-mail: a.johnston{at}griffith.edu.au

Age-associated loss of olfactory function, or presbyosmia, has been described in many studies of olfactory ability. Presbyosmia has been ascribed to idiopathic causes despite recognition that many neurodegenerative diseases also induce loss of olfactory function and increase in incidence in the aged population. Often this olfactory loss is unnoticed or unreported by affected individuals. More effective olfactory function in women compared with men is another common feature of many studies of olfactory function. Here we report on normative data from an Australian population study (n = 942) that has been divided into 2 subpopulations and reassessed as (included) a population of healthy, nonmedicated, nonsmokers with no history of nasal problems (n = 485) and (excluded) a population of participants who were either medicated, smokers or had a history of nasal problems (n = 457). The "included" data set shows a strong relationship between self-reporting of olfactory sensitivity and olfactory function score. The included data set shows a small but significant decline in olfactory ability after 65 years of age and better olfactory function in females compared with males. Data from the excluded population show a marked decline in olfactory ability after 65 years of age, no difference between males and females, and a weak relationship between self-reporting of olfactory function and actual olfactory function. The power of this approach is that it provides a normative data set against which many factors such as medication schedules and pathological conditions can be compared.

Key words: aging, gender, human olfaction, self-assessment of smell, smell test


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[Abstract] [PDF]


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