Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital Basel, Petersgraben 4, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
J Neurol. 2011 Mar;258(3):386-92. doi: 10.1007/s00415-010-5763-5. Epub 2010 Oct 1.
Although 5% of the general population exhibit a functional anosmia, little is known about the frequency of gustatory disorders. Whenever taste function has been tested within large sociodemographic studies, so far only short test versions were applied making the interpretation difficult. Using two psychophysical taste tests, the validated "taste strips" and suprathreshold taste solutions of the four basic tastes sweet, sour, salty and bitter we investigated 761 healthy subjects within the age range of 5-89 years. Prior to testing, all subjects rated their taste function. According to testing with the taste strips, 5.3% scored below the result considered as hypogeusia. All four taste sprays were correctly identified by 82.3% of all subjects. Results of the two taste tests correlated positively (r = 0.33, p < 0.001), and there was a significant negative correlation between age and test results. However, we never observed complete ageusia. Misinterpretations of tastes were surprisingly common. In summary, hypogeusia was present in 5% while complete ageusia seems to be very rare, in contrast to misinterpretations of tastes.
尽管 5%的普通人群存在功能性嗅觉丧失，但味觉障碍的频率知之甚少。在大型社会人口研究中测试味觉功能时，迄今为止仅应用了简短的测试版本，这使得解释变得困难。我们使用两种心理物理味觉测试，即经过验证的“味觉条”和四种基本味觉（甜、酸、咸、苦）的超阈值味觉溶液，对 761 名年龄在 5-89 岁之间的健康受试者进行了调查。在测试之前，所有受试者都对自己的味觉功能进行了评分。根据味觉条测试，有 5.3%的人得分低于被认为是味觉减退的结果。所有四种味觉喷雾都被 82.3%的受试者正确识别。两种味觉测试的结果呈正相关（r = 0.33，p <0.001），并且年龄与测试结果呈显著负相关。然而，我们从未观察到完全的味觉丧失。味觉的误解非常普遍。总的来说，味觉减退的发生率为 5%，而完全味觉丧失似乎非常罕见，与味觉的误解形成鲜明对比。
