School of Kinesiology, Shanghai University of Sport, 399 Chang Hai Road, Shanghai, 200438, P.R. China.
Rhinology. 2019 Oct 1;57(5):322-330. doi: 10.4193/Rhin19.005.
Although conflicting findings abound, gender-related differences in olfactory identification have received continuous attention. To our best knowledge, no systematic and quantitative research has examined gender differences in olfaction identification at various stages of life. The present study aimed to find out if there is gender difference in human olfaction identification in different life stages.
Studies cited in the PubMed database were searched from its inception to August 2017 using the terms "olfact" or "smell" and "gender" or "sex". The effect size of each comparison was calculated. 24 studies were included in this meta-analysis.
In this meta-analysis, we used Cohen's d to determine the effects sizes for the comparisons between women versus men among different groups. Its value was 0.18 (95% CI: -0.13 to 0.49) in Group A (age less than 18 years), 0.62 (95% CI: 0.43 to 0.81) in Group B (age 18-50 years), and 0.33 (95% CI: -0.01 to 0.66) in Group C. The effect was considered relatively small in Group A (age less than 18 years) and Group C (age more than 50 years), and a medium effect in Group B (age 18-50 years). Moreover, a significant difference was only present in Group B (age 18-50 years). Summarizing, the gender effect was only present in the group aged 18-50 years, in which women outperformed men significantly in odor identification.
This meta-analytic review indicated that the gender differences only exist in young adults (age 18-50 years), while absent in juveniles (age less than 18 years) or an aged cohort (age more than 50 years). Females outperformed males in the young adults.
尽管存在相互矛盾的发现，但性别与嗅觉识别之间的差异一直受到持续关注。据我们所知，尚无系统的定量研究在人生的各个阶段检查嗅觉识别的性别差异。本研究旨在探讨不同生命阶段人类嗅觉识别是否存在性别差异。
从 2017 年 8 月开始，我们在 PubMed 数据库中使用“olfact”或“smell”和“gender”或“sex”等术语搜索引用的研究。计算了每个比较的效应大小。本荟萃分析纳入了 24 项研究。
在本荟萃分析中，我们使用 Cohen 的 d 来确定不同组中女性与男性之间比较的效应大小。其值在 A 组（年龄小于 18 岁）中为 0.18（95%CI：-0.13 至 0.49），在 B 组（18-50 岁）中为 0.62（95%CI：0.43 至 0.81），在 C 组中为 0.33（95%CI：-0.01 至 0.66）。在 A 组（年龄小于 18 岁）和 C 组（年龄大于 50 岁）中，这种效应被认为相对较小，而在 B 组（18-50 岁）中则为中等效应。此外，仅在 B 组（18-50 岁）中存在显著差异。总之，性别效应仅存在于 18-50 岁的年龄段，女性在气味识别方面明显优于男性。
本荟萃分析表明，性别差异仅存在于年轻成年人（18-50 岁）中，而在青少年（年龄小于 18 岁）或老年组（年龄大于 50 岁）中不存在。在年轻成年人中，女性的表现优于男性。
