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. 2023 Nov;169(5):1386-1389.
doi: 10.1002/ohn.384. Epub 2023 May 26.

COVID-19-Associated Chemosensory Loss Continues to Decline

Evan R Reiter  1 , Daniel H Coelho  1 , Evan French  1 , Richard M Costanzo  1 ; N3C Consortium  1
Affiliations

COVID-19-Associated Chemosensory Loss Continues to Decline

Evan R Reiter et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Chemosensory losses have long been considered a cardinal symptom of COVID-19 infection. Recent studies have shown changing symptom profiles with COVID-19, including decreasing incidence of olfactory losses. We accessed the National COVID Cohort Collaborative database to identify patients with and without smell and taste loss within 2 weeks of COVID-19 diagnosis. Peak prevalence time intervals for variants were determined from Covariants.org. Using rates of chemosensory loss during the peak time interval for "Untyped" variants as baseline (4/27/2020-6/18/2020), odds ratios for COVID-19-associated smell or taste disturbance fell for each of the Alpha (0.744), Delta (0.637), Omicron K (0.139), Omicron L (0.079), Omicron C (0.061), and Omicron B (0.070) peak intervals. These data suggest that during the recent Omicron waves and potentially moving forward, the presence or absence of smell and taste disturbances may no longer have predictive value in the diagnosis of COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; olfaction; smell loss.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Top, COVID-19 variant prevalence. Filled dots indicate “peak” time intervals for each variant. Bottom, odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals, for smell and taste loss during variant peak intervals, with “Untyped” as the baseline.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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