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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Prevalence of Subjective Olfactory Dysfunction and Its Risk Factors: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Abstract
Background
Population-based studies for olfactory dysfunction are lacking. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of subjective olfactory dysfunction and its risk factors in the Korean general population.
Methods
The data were obtained from the 2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), which was a cross-sectional survey of non-institutionalized population all around the country (n = 10,533). All interviewees underwent medical interviews, physical examinations, endoscopic examination and blood/urine tests. Whether sense of smell has been normal or abnormal during the last 3 months was asked. Complete olfaction data were obtained from 7,306 participants and the participants were divided into normosmic and hyposmic group. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify its risk factors.
Results
The weighted prevalence of subjective olfactory dysfunction was 4.5%. Its increased prevalence was significantly associated with the increasing age for both men and women. In the multivariate analyses, low income (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.43, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.01–2.03), habitual exposure to air pollutants (adjusted OR = 2.18, CI = 1.33–3.55), a history of hepatitis B (adjusted OR = 3.10, CI = 1.25–7.68), rhinitis (adjusted OR = 1.78, CI = 1.26–2.51) and chronic sinusitis (adjusted OR = 14.55, CI = 10.06–21.05) were risk factors of olfactory dysfunction.
Conclusion
Our population-based study showed that olfactory dysfunction was quite prevalent and several risk factors were associated with impaired sense of smell. Given its prevalence, further researches for its prevention and management are required.
Citation: Lee WH, Wee JH, Kim D-K, Rhee C-S, Lee CH, et al. (2013) Prevalence of Subjective Olfactory Dysfunction and Its Risk Factors: Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. PLoS ONE 8(5): e62725. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062725
Editor: Yiqing Song, Brigham & Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, United States of America
Received: January 8, 2013; Accepted: March 25, 2013; Published: May 9, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Lee et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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