Taste and Smell Impairment in COVID-19: An AAO-HNS Anosmia Reporting Tool-Based Comparative Study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the taste and smell impairment in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-positive subjects and compare the findings with COVID-19-negative subjects using the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Anosmia Reporting Tool.

SETTING: Tertiary referral center/COVID-19 pandemic hospital.

STUDY DESIGN: Comparative study.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: After power analysis, 128 subjects were divided into 2 groups according to real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 testing results. Subjects were called via telephone, and the AAO-HNS Anosmia Reporting Tool was used to collect responses.

RESULTS: The mean age of the study group was 38.63 ± 10.08 years. At the time of sampling, rhinorrhea was significantly high in the COVID-19-negative group, whereas those complaints described as "other" were significantly high in the COVID-19-positive group. There was a significant difference in the smell/taste impairment rates of the groups (n = 46% [71.9%] for the COVID-19-positive group vs n = 17 [26.6%] for the COVID-19-negative group, P = .001). For subjects with a smell impairment, anosmia rates did not differ between the groups. The rates of hyposmia and parosmia were significantly high in the COVID-19-positive group. For the subjects with taste impairment, ageusia rates did not differ between groups. The rate of hypogeusia and dysgeusia was significantly high in the COVID-19-positive group. Logistic regression analysis indicates that smell/taste impairment in COVID-19-positive subjects increases the odds ratio by 6.956 (95% CI, 3.16-15.29) times.

CONCLUSION: COVID-19-positive subjects are strongly associated with smell/taste impairment.