Iravani Behzad, Arshamian Artin, Ravia Aharon, Mishor Eva, Snitz Kobi, Shushan Sagit, Roth Yehudah, Perl Ofer, Honigstein Danielle, Weissgross Reut, Karagach Shiri, Ernst Gernot, Okamoto Masako, Mainen Zachary, Monteleone Erminio, Dinnella Caterina, Spinelli Sara, Mariño-Sánchez Franklin, Ferdenzi Camille, Smeets Monique, Touhara Kazushige, Bensafi Moustafa, Hummel Thomas, Sobel Noam, Lundström Johan N
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Chem Senses. 2020 May 22. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa034.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have implemented various strategies to reduce and slow the spread of the disease in the general population. For countries that have implemented restrictions on its population in a step-wise manner, monitoring of COVID-19 prevalence is of importance to guide decision on when to impose new, or when to abolish old, restrictions. We are here determining whether measures of odor intensity in a large sample can serve as one such measure. Online measures of how intense common household odors are perceived and symptoms of COVID-19 were collected from 2440 Swedes. Average odor intensity ratings were then compared to predicted COVID-19 population prevalence over time in the Swedish population and were found to closely track each other (r=-0.83). Moreover, we found that there was a large difference in rated intensity between individuals with and without COVID-19 symptoms and number of symptoms was related to odor intensity ratings. Finally, we found that individuals progressing from reporting no symptoms to subsequently reporting COVID-19 symptoms demonstrated a large drop in olfactory performance. These data suggest that measures of odor intensity, if obtained in a large and representative sample, can be used as an indicator of COVID-19 disease in the general population. Importantly, this simple measure could easily be implemented in countries without widespread access to COVID-19 testing or implemented as a fast early response before wide-spread testing can be facilitated.
为应对新冠疫情，各国已实施各种策略以减少并减缓该疾病在普通人群中的传播。对于逐步对其民众实施限制措施的国家而言，监测新冠病毒流行情况对于指导何时实施新的限制措施或何时取消旧的限制措施的决策至关重要。我们在此确定在大量样本中测量气味强度的方法是否可作为这样一种措施。我们从2440名瑞典人那里收集了关于常见家庭气味的感知强度的在线测量数据以及新冠病毒症状数据。然后将平均气味强度评分与瑞典人群中随时间推移预测的新冠病毒流行率进行比较，发现二者密切相关（r = -0.83）。此外，我们发现有新冠病毒症状和没有新冠病毒症状的个体在气味强度评分上存在很大差异，且症状数量与气味强度评分相关。最后，我们发现从报告无症状到随后报告有新冠病毒症状的个体，其嗅觉表现大幅下降。这些数据表明，如果在一个大型且具有代表性的样本中获取气味强度测量数据，那么它可作为普通人群中新冠病毒感染情况的一个指标。重要的是，在没有广泛开展新冠病毒检测的国家，这种简单的测量方法可以很容易地实施，或者在能够促进广泛检测之前作为一种快速的早期应对措施来实施。
