Results of olfactory tests on 109 elderly women comparison of odour stick and open essence

There are two methods for testing 12 types of odours closely related to the lives of Japanese people (ink, wood, perfume, menthol, mandarin oranges, curry, household gas, roses, cypress, sweaty socks, condensed milk, fried garlic).There are few research reports comparing the two types of odour tests, odor stick and open essence, on the same subjects. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify whether there are differences between the two types of odour tests, odour stick and open essence, by conducting the same subjects. The purpose of this study was to clarify the difficult-to-understand odours and easy-to-understand odors in the two types of odour tests by comparing the results of the two types of odour tests on the same elderly female subjects. Olfaction tests were conducted on 109 elderly females using odour sticks and open essences. After smelling the odours, participants selected one of the options (four types of odours and six types of odorless odours that could be smelled but were undetectable). They selected one and wrote it down on the answer sheet. Participants were 109 elderly women, with a mean age ± standard deviation (median: minimum-maximum) of 71.3 ± 5.8 years (71 years: 60 years-92 years).The number of correct answers to the odours was classified as being easily detectable for 6 or more of the 12 types, and being difficult to detect for less than 6 types. As a result, 84 people were able to easily detect odours using the odour stick, and 82 people were able to easily detect odours using the open essence, and the results of the chi-square test showed no significant difference (P = 0.751). However, when comparing each smell, the results of the chi-square test showed that the open essence was statistically significantly more difficult to distinguish than the odour stick for mandarin oranges (0.0001**) and fried garlic (P-0.0001**). The correct answer rate (number of smells correctly answered out of 12) for the two smells was not statistically significant. However, since there were smells that were easy to distinguish with the smelly stick but difficult to distinguish with the open essence (mandarin oranges and fried garlic), it may be necessary to evaluate by smell in the future. We think it is necessary to increase the number of people in the future and continue to investigate whether there are smells that are easy to distinguish and difficult to distinguish with the open essence and odour stick.