Elsevier

Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Volume 95, Issue 8, August 2020, Pages 1621-1631
Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Original article
Smell and Taste Dysfunction in Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2020.05.030Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To estimate the prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions (OGDs) among patients infected with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods

A systematic review was conducted by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the preprint server MedRxiv from their inception until May 11, 2020, using the terms anosmia or hyposmia or dysosmia or olfactory dysfunction or olfaction disorder or smell dysfunction or ageusia or hypogeusia or dysgeusia or taste dysfunction or gustatory dysfunction or neurological and COVID-19 or 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2. The references of included studies were also manually screened. Only studies involving patients with diagnostic-confirmed COVID-19 infection were included. Random-effects meta-analysis was performed.

Results

Twenty-four studies with data from 8438 patients with test-confirmed COVID-19 infection from 13 countries were included. The pooled proportions of patients presenting with olfactory dysfunction and gustatory dysfunction were 41.0% (95% CI, 28.5% to 53.9%) and 38.2% (95% CI, 24.0% to 53.6%), respectively. Increasing mean age correlated with lower prevalence of olfactory (coefficient = −0.076; P=.02) and gustatory (coefficient = −0.073; P=.03) dysfunctions. There was a higher prevalence of olfactory dysfunctions with the use of objective measurements compared with self-reports (coefficient = 2.33; P=.01). No significant moderation of the prevalence of OGDs by sex was observed.

Conclusion

There is a high prevalence of OGDs among patients infected with COVID-19. Routine screening for these conditions could contribute to improved case detection in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, to better inform population screening measures, further studies are needed to establish causality.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

AAO-HNS
American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery
CCCRC
Connecticut Chemosensory Clinical Research Center
COVID-19
novel coronavirus disease 2019
NHANES
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
NR
not reported
OGD
olfactory and gustatory dysfunction
SARS-CoV-2
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
UPSIT
University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test

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Potential Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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