Chauhan J
Department of Hotel Catering and Management, Oxford Polytechnic, Headington, England.
J Am Diet Assoc. 1989 May;89(5):652-8.
The relationships between perceived sour and salt taste intensity and selected subject attributes--taste/smell deficits, salt use, avoidance of salt/sour tasting foods, smoking, alcohol use, dentures, education, and prescription drug use--were investigated in 180 subjects (30 men and 30 women/age group: 20 to 29 years [young], 70 to 79 years [old], 80 to 99 years [very old]. Multiple regression analyses showed that the taste intensity estimates were significantly related to age, sex, stimulus concentration, self-reported taste/smell deficits, avoidance of salt/sour tasting foods, salt use, alcohol, smoking, education, and use of certain drugs (drugs for the treatment of arthritis, drugs acting on the gastrointestinal tract and heart system, and diuretics/drugs for the treatment of hypertension). The very old showed deficits in perception of the low suprathreshold tastant levels, with near normal perception of the high levels, whereas the old exhibited deficits at all levels. Wearing dentures was the only single variable not selected in any of the final regression models, due to the high prevalence and homogeneity in use of dentures in the elderly groups. Further work using a stratified sample and a large number of subjects is warranted to elucidate the influence of subject attributes on taste perception.
在180名受试者（30名男性和30名女性/年龄组：20至29岁[年轻]、70至79岁[老年]、80至99岁[高龄]）中，研究了所感知的酸味和咸味强度与选定的受试者属性之间的关系，这些属性包括味觉/嗅觉缺陷、盐的使用、对咸味/酸味食物的回避、吸烟、饮酒、假牙佩戴情况、教育程度和处方药使用情况。多元回归分析表明，味觉强度估计值与年龄、性别、刺激物浓度、自我报告的味觉/嗅觉缺陷、对咸味/酸味食物的回避、盐的使用、饮酒、吸烟、教育程度以及某些药物（治疗关节炎的药物、作用于胃肠道和心脏系统的药物、利尿剂/治疗高血压的药物）的使用显著相关。高龄受试者对低阈上味觉水平的感知存在缺陷，而对高味觉水平的感知接近正常，而老年受试者在所有味觉水平上均表现出缺陷。由于老年组中假牙佩戴的高患病率和同质性，佩戴假牙是所有最终回归模型中唯一未被选中的单一变量。有必要进一步开展工作，采用分层抽样和大量受试者来阐明受试者属性对味觉感知的影响。
