Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Nov;69 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S134-43.
doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu093.

Olfactory function in Wave 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

David W Kern  1 , Kristen E Wroblewski  2 , L Philip Schumm  2 , Jayant M Pinto  3 , Rachel C Chen  4 , Martha K McClintock  5
Affiliations

Olfactory function in Wave 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

David W Kern et al. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2014 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the sense of smell, including sensitivity and odor identification, and characterize the U.S. national prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in older adults, thereby facilitating further investigation of the substantial risks for older adults associated with this basic sensory ability.

Method: The sense of smell was evaluated using the Olfactory Function Field Exam (OFFE), a measure designed specifically for field research, which assesses 3 components of olfaction: sensitivity to n-butanol (a standard testing odorant) and androstadienone (AND, a key social odor produced by humans), as well as the ability to identify odors. Respondents were randomly selected from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project Wave 2 sample to receive the OFFE (n = 2,304), and 2,212 consented to participate.

Results: In the U.S. population aged 62-90, n-butanol detection ability was significantly worse at older ages (ordinal logistic regression, p < .001); however, there was no difference in detection ability between genders (p = .60). AND detection ability was also significantly worse at older ages (p = .003), but in contrast to n-butanol, women outperformed men (p = .001). As expected, odor identification ability was worse in older people than in younger (p < .001), and women were more accurate than men (p = .001).

Discussion: We report for the first time 3 facets of olfactory function and its association with age and gender in a representative sample of U.S. older adults. Future analyses of these data are needed to elucidate the sense of smell's role in physical, social, and mental health with aging.

Keywords: Aging; Androstadienone; Odor identification; Olfaction.; n-Butanol.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic representation of the OFFE detection tests (n-butanol).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Prevalence of the number of n-butanol concentrations correctly detected overall and by age and gender subgroups for the older adult population of the United States aged 62–90.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Prevalence of the number of androstadienone (AND) concentrations correctly detected overall and by age and gender subgroups for the older adult population of the United States aged 62–90.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Prevalence of the number of odors correctly identified overall and by age and gender subgroups for the older adult population of the United States aged 62–90.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aschenbrenner K., Hummel C., Teszmer K., Krone F., Ishimaru T., Seo H. S., Hummel T. (2008). The influence of olfactory loss on dietary behaviors. The Laryngoscope, 118, 135–144. 10.1097/MLG.0b013e318155a4b9 - PubMed
    1. Atanasova B., Graux J., El Hage W., Hommet C., Camus V., Belzung C. (2008). Olfaction: A potential cognitive marker of psychiatric disorders. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 1315–1325. 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.003 - PubMed
    1. Barresi M., Ciurleo R., Giacoppo S., Foti Cuzzola V., Celi D., Bramanti P., Marino S. (2012). Evaluation of olfactory dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 323, 16–24. 10.1016/j.jns.2012.08.028 - PubMed
    1. Bensafi M., Brown W. M., Khan R., Levenson B., Sobel N. (2004). Sniffing human sex-steroid derived compounds modulates mood, memory and autonomic nervous system function in specific behavioral contexts. Behavioural Brain Research, 152, 11–22. 10.1016/j.bbr.2003.09.009 - PubMed
    1. Boesveldt S., Lindau S. T., McClintock M. K., Hummel T., Lundström J. N. (2011). Gustatory and olfactory dysfunction in older adults: A national probability study. Rhinology, 49, 324–330. 10.4193/Rhino10.155 - PMC - PubMed

Publication types