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. 2025 Jul-Aug;32(4):922-927.
doi: 10.1080/23279095.2023.2224480. Epub 2023 Jul 6.

The 8-item NHANES pocket smell test®: Normative data

Aretha On  1 , Shima T Moein  1   2 , Rafa Khan  1 , Richard L Doty  1
Affiliations

The 8-item NHANES pocket smell test®: Normative data

Aretha On et al. Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2025 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

This study provides normative data useful for interpreting scores from the Pocket Smell Test® (PST®), a brief "scratch & sniff" neuropsychological olfactory screening test comprised of 8 items from the 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT®). We combined 3,485 PST® scores from the 2013 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) of persons 40 years of age and older with equivalent PST® items extracted from an UPSIT® database of 3,900 persons ranging in age from 5 to 99 years. Decade-related age- and gender-adjusted percentile normative data were established across the entire age spectrum. Cut-points for defining clinically useful categories of anosmia, probable microsmia, and normosmia were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. An age-related decline in test scores was evident for both sexes after the age of 40 years, with women outperforming men. Based on the ROC analyses, subjects scoring 3 or less (AUC = 0.81) defines anosmia. Regardless of sex, a score of 7 or 8 on the N-PST® signifies normal function (AUC of 0.71). Probable microsmia is classified as scores extending from 3 to 6. These data provide an accurate means for interpreting PST® scores within a number of clinical and applied settings.

Keywords: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES); UPSIT®; olfaction; pocket smell test®; psychophysics.

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