Hospital São Lucas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, 6690, Ipiranga Avenue, Jardim Botânico, Porto Alegre, 90619-900, Brazil.
Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2022 Mar;279(3):1123-1145. doi: 10.1007/s00405-021-06970-8. Epub 2021 Jul 28.
Olfaction impairment occurs in about 90% of patients with Parkinson's disease. The Sniffin Sticks Test is a widely used instrument to measure olfactory performance and is divided into three subtests that assess olfactory threshold, discrimination and identification. However, cultural and socioeconomic differences can influence test performance.
We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existent data about Sniffin Sticks Test performance of Parkinson's disease patients and healthy controls in different countries and investigated if there are other cofactors which could influence the olfactory test results. A subgroup analysis by country was performed as well as a meta-regression using age, gender and air pollution as covariates.
Four hundred and thirty studies were found and 66 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Parkinson's disease patients showed significantly lower scores on the Sniffin Sticks Test and all its subtests than healthy controls. Overall, the heterogeneity among studies was moderate to high as well as the intra-country heterogeneity. The subgroup analysis, stratifying by country, maintained a high residual heterogeneity.
The meta-regression showed a significant correlation with age and air pollution in a few subtests. A high heterogeneity was found among studies which was not significantly decreased after subgroup analysis by country. This fact signalizes that maybe cultural influence has a small impact on the Sniffin Sticks Test results. Age and air pollution have influence in a few olfactory subtests.
约 90%的帕金森病患者存在嗅觉障碍。嗅棒测试是一种广泛用于评估嗅觉表现的工具，它分为三个子测试，分别评估嗅觉阈值、辨别力和识别力。然而，文化和社会经济差异可能会影响测试表现。
我们对不同国家帕金森病患者和健康对照组的嗅棒测试表现的现有数据进行了系统评价和荟萃分析，并探讨了是否有其他因素会影响嗅觉测试结果。我们还按国家进行了亚组分析，并使用年龄、性别和空气污染作为协变量进行了荟萃回归分析。
共发现 430 项研究，其中 66 项研究被纳入荟萃分析。帕金森病患者的嗅棒测试及其所有子测试的得分均明显低于健康对照组。总体而言，研究之间的异质性以及各国之间的异质性均为中高度。按国家进行的亚组分析表明，仍存在较高的剩余异质性。
荟萃回归分析显示，年龄和空气污染与几个子测试有显著相关性。研究之间存在高度异质性，按国家进行亚组分析后并未显著降低。这一事实表明，文化影响可能对嗅棒测试结果有一定影响。年龄和空气污染对几个嗅觉子测试有影响。
