Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Interdisciplinary Center for Smell and Taste Research, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2011 Sep;268(9):1293-7. doi: 10.1007/s00405-011-1593-z. Epub 2011 Apr 3.
Odor identification tests are widely used for the general screening of olfactory function. However, the administration of odor identification tests is often limited due to a lack of investigators' time. Therefore, we attempted to design a computer-controlled olfactometer to present a self-administered odor identification test. The results produced by means of this olfactometer were evaluated in terms of validity and test-retest reliability. To test the validity, participants' performance in the odor identification test using the olfactometer was compared with their performance in the odor identification test using the validated assessment of the "Sniffin' Sticks" test. The ten-item odor identification test was performed two times using two different methods: (1) the self-administered test using the computer-controlled olfactometer and (2) the foreign-administered test using the "Sniffin' sticks." To examine test-retest reliability, 20 participants were asked to repeat these tests on a different day. Participants reached significantly higher scores on a foreign-administered odor identification test using the "Sniffin' sticks" than on the olfactometer-based test; however, this effect was driven by two less correctly identified odors in the olfactometer-based test. The significant difference between both methods in the mean scores disappeared after excluding two odors from the analysis. In addition, both methods showed no significant difference in scores obtained during the first and second session, indicating that results were consistent between sessions. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the computer-controlled olfactometer designed in this study can be used for a self-administered odor identification test.
气味识别测试被广泛用于嗅觉功能的一般筛查。然而，由于调查人员缺乏时间，气味识别测试的实施往往受到限制。因此，我们试图设计一种计算机控制的嗅觉计，以进行自我管理的气味识别测试。通过嗅觉计产生的结果从有效性和重测信度方面进行评估。为了测试有效性，我们将参与者使用嗅觉计进行的气味识别测试的表现与他们使用经过验证的“Sniffin' Sticks”测试评估进行的气味识别测试的表现进行了比较。使用两种不同方法进行了十项气味识别测试：（1）使用计算机控制的嗅觉计进行的自我测试，（2）使用“Sniffin' Sticks”进行的外来测试。为了检验重测信度，要求 20 名参与者在不同的日子重复这些测试。使用“Sniffin' sticks”进行外来气味识别测试的参与者获得的分数明显高于基于嗅觉计的测试；然而，这种效果是由基于嗅觉计的测试中两种识别错误的气味驱动的。在排除两种气味进行分析后，两种方法之间的平均分数的显著差异消失了。此外，两种方法在第一和第二阶段获得的分数均无显著差异，表明各阶段结果一致。总之，我们的研究结果表明，本研究设计的计算机控制嗅觉计可用于自我管理的气味识别测试。
