Olfactory Function in Australian Aboriginal Children and Chronic Otitis Media

Abstract

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM), a severe form of middle ear infection, affects most Australian Aboriginal children with up to 50% in some communities suffering hearing loss as a consequence. To date, there is no information on whether repeated exposure to the pathogens that characterize CSOM and that are present in the upper respiratory airway affect olfactory function. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine whether 1) there was a high prevalence of olfactory loss in Aboriginal children and 2) hearing loss is a predictor of olfactory loss. Two hundred and sixty one 9- to 12-year-old Aboriginal children from 16 rural communities reported to have high prevalences of CSOM and hearing loss were assessed for olfactory loss using a 16-odor identification test and hearing loss. One child was found to be anosmic, 4 were slightly hyposmic, and 42 had hearing loss. No relationship was found between olfactory loss and hearing loss. The test-retest reliability of the 16-odor identification test was 0.98. It was concluded that CSOM does not appear to affect olfactory function in the long term and that hearing loss in Aboriginal children is not a predictor of olfactory loss.

Taste and smell dysfunction in childhood cancer survivors

“…Previous research in clinical and non-clinical populations using the same taste and smell tests utilised here indicate that the majority of people score towards the high-functioning end of the scale on both of these tests [24,30,22]. Since the underlying distribution of these smell and taste tests are non-normal, and the comparisons between treatment groups involved small and uneven group sizes, nonparametric statistics were considered the most appropriate method of analyses for the current data [31].…”

“…This criteria was established from normative data for children (n=232) and adults (n= 56) older than five years, using the same test procedure [21]. The same criteria for taste impairment has been used with participants with cystic fibrosis [22], chronic kidney disease [23] and healthy school children [24].…”

“…Early data indicated that children from nine years of age performed similarly to adults [25]. In addition, it has been shown to have a test-retest reliability of 0.98 [24] indicating a high level of reliability. A score of less than 13 out of a possible 16 (e.g.…”

Smell and taste function in children with chronic kidney disease

“…An odour identification test was used because high correlations have been reported between identification and acuity or discrimination measures [13,14]. Normative data have been obtained for children aged 5, 6, 7 and 9-12 years and adults [12,15]. Children with normal olfactory function are defined as those correctly identifying >12 odorants, with hyposmics correctly identifying 8-12 odorants and anosmics <8; for 5 year olds, the respective levels are >11, 8-11, < 8 correct.…”

“…A Kruskal-Wallis test indicated there were no significant differences (P>0.05) between the odour identification scores (median, range) of the three groups (CKD stage 3-5, median 15.0, range 11-16; CC, 16.0, 14-16; HC, 15.5, [14][15][16].…”