TY - JOUR
T1 - Relationship between odor intensity estimates and COVID-19 prevalence prediction in a Swedish population
AU - Iravani, Behzad
AU - Arshamian, Artin
AU - Ravia, Aharon
AU - Mishor, Eva
AU - Snitz, Kobi
AU - Shushan, Sagit
AU - Roth, Yehudah
AU - Perl, Ofer
AU - Honigstein, Danielle
AU - Weissgross, Reut
AU - Karagach, Shiri
AU - Ernst, Gernot
AU - Okamoto, Masako
AU - Mainen, Zachary
AU - Monteleone, Erminio
AU - Dinnella, Caterina
AU - Spinelli, Sara
AU - Mariño-Sánchez, Franklin
AU - Ferdenzi, Camille
AU - Smeets, Monique
AU - Touhara, Kazushige
AU - Bensafi, Moustafa
AU - Hummel, Thomas
AU - Sobel, Noam
AU - Lundström, Johan N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2020/7/7
Y1 - 2020/7/7
N2 - In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, countries have implemented various strategies to reduce and slow the spread of the disease in the general population. For countries that have implemented restrictions on its population in a stepwise manner, monitoring of COVID-19 prevalence is of importance to guide the decision on when to impose new, or when to abolish old, restrictions. We are here determining whether measures of odor intensity in a large sample can serve as one such measure. Online measures of how intense common household odors are perceived and symptoms of COVID-19 were collected from 2440 Swedes. Average odor intensity ratings were then compared to predicted COVID-19 population prevalence over time in the Swedish population and were found to closely track each other (r = −0.83). Moreover, we found that there was a large difference in rated intensity between individuals with and without COVID-19 symptoms and the number of symptoms was related to odor intensity ratings. Finally, we found that individuals progressing from reporting no symptoms to subsequently reporting COVID-19 symptoms demonstrated a large drop in olfactory performance.These data suggest that measures of odor intensity, if obtained in a large and representative sample, can be used as an indicator of COVID-19 disease in the general population. Importantly, this simple measure could easily be implemented in countries without widespread access to COVID-19 testing or implemented as a fast early response before widespread testing can be facilitated.
AB - In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, countries have implemented various strategies to reduce and slow the spread of the disease in the general population. For countries that have implemented restrictions on its population in a stepwise manner, monitoring of COVID-19 prevalence is of importance to guide the decision on when to impose new, or when to abolish old, restrictions. We are here determining whether measures of odor intensity in a large sample can serve as one such measure. Online measures of how intense common household odors are perceived and symptoms of COVID-19 were collected from 2440 Swedes. Average odor intensity ratings were then compared to predicted COVID-19 population prevalence over time in the Swedish population and were found to closely track each other (r = −0.83). Moreover, we found that there was a large difference in rated intensity between individuals with and without COVID-19 symptoms and the number of symptoms was related to odor intensity ratings. Finally, we found that individuals progressing from reporting no symptoms to subsequently reporting COVID-19 symptoms demonstrated a large drop in olfactory performance.These data suggest that measures of odor intensity, if obtained in a large and representative sample, can be used as an indicator of COVID-19 disease in the general population. Importantly, this simple measure could easily be implemented in countries without widespread access to COVID-19 testing or implemented as a fast early response before widespread testing can be facilitated.
KW - Anosmia
KW - COVID-19
KW - Coronavirus
KW - Olfactory dysfunction
KW - Population prevalence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087463866&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/chemse/bjaa034
DO - 10.1093/chemse/bjaa034
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C2 - 32441744
AN - SCOPUS:85087463866
SN - 0379-864X
VL - 45
SP - 449
EP - 456
JO - Chemical Senses
JF - Chemical Senses
IS - 6
ER -
