Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 22;7:45118. doi: 10.1038/srep45118.
Social factors play a critical role in a panoply of health processes, including, as recently demonstrated, olfaction. Here, we investigated sex-dependent differences in the relationship between social lives and ability to identify odors in a large sample of nationally representative older US adults (n = 3005, National Social Life and Aging Project (NSHAP)). Social life was measured by the number of friends and close relatives as well as frequency of socializing. We here confirm the association between social lives and olfactory function and extend the notion by showing specifically that olfactory identification ability is modulated by sex in older adults. The connection between olfactory performance and social lives could reflect social modulation of aging as has been reported for health in general. Future studies are necessary to elucidate the precise mechanisms underlying this association and sex difference.
社会因素在多种健康过程中起着至关重要的作用，包括最近有研究表明的嗅觉。在这里，我们在一个具有全国代表性的美国老年人（n=3005，国家社会生活和老龄化项目（NSHAP））的大样本中调查了社会生活与识别气味能力之间的性别差异。社会生活通过朋友和近亲的数量以及社交频率来衡量。我们在这里证实了社会生活与嗅觉功能之间的关联，并通过具体表明嗅觉识别能力在老年人中受到性别的调节来扩展这一概念。嗅觉表现与社会生活之间的联系可能反映了社会对衰老的调节，正如一般健康状况所报告的那样。未来的研究有必要阐明这种关联和性别差异的具体机制。
