Smeets Monique A M, Schifferstein Hendrik N J, Boelema Sarai R, Lensvelt-Mulders Gerty
Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, PO Box 80.140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Chem Senses. 2008 Oct;33(8):725-34. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjn038. Epub 2008 Jul 11.
The Odor Awareness Scale (OAS) is a questionnaire designed to assess individual differences in awareness of odors in the environment. The theory that odor awareness can be distinguished in awareness of negative (to be avoided) odors and positive (to be approached) odors was tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the 34-item questionnaire after completion by 525 respondents. CFA (after deletion of 2 items) showed good fit of the 2-factor theory, resulting in a positive awareness subscale (11 items, Cronbach's alpha = .77) and a negative awareness subscale (21 items, Cronbach's alpha = .80). Furthermore, reports of sickness from environmental odors were correlated with the negative odor awareness factor, not the positive odor awareness factor. Respondents scoring high on the overall sum score of the OAS showed significantly better olfactory performance on an odor perception test battery than respondents with a low score. These results suggest a causal relation between awareness of potentially negative odors, olfactory performance and experiencing health effects from environmental odor exposure, that warrants further investigation.
气味意识量表（OAS）是一份旨在评估个体对环境中气味的感知差异的问卷。通过对525名受访者完成的34项问卷进行验证性因素分析（CFA），对气味意识可分为对负面（应避免）气味和正面（应接近）气味的感知这一理论进行了测试。CFA（删除2个项目后）显示二因素理论拟合良好，从而得到一个正面意识子量表（11个项目，克朗巴哈系数α = 0.77）和一个负面意识子量表（21个项目，克朗巴哈系数α = 0.80）。此外，因环境气味导致的疾病报告与负面气味意识因素相关，而非正面气味意识因素。在OAS总分上得分高的受访者在一组气味感知测试中的嗅觉表现显著优于得分低的受访者。这些结果表明，对潜在负面气味的感知、嗅觉表现以及因接触环境气味而产生的健康影响之间存在因果关系，值得进一步研究。
