The ability to identify odors predicts morbidity, mortality, and quality of life. It varies by age, gender, and race and is used in the vast majority of survey and clinical literature. However, odor identification relies heavily on cognition. Other facets of olfaction, such as odor sensitivity, have a smaller cognitive component. Whether odor sensitivity also varies by these factors has not been definitively answered. We analyzed data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a nationally representative study of older US adults (n = 2081). Odor identification was measured using 5 validated odors presented with Sniffin' Stick pens as was odor sensitivity in a 6-dilution n-butanol constant stimuli detection test. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression modeled relationships between olfaction and age, gender, race, cognition, education, socioeconomic status, social network characteristics, and physical and mental health. Odor sensitivity was worse in older adults (P < 0.01), without gender (P = 0.56) or race (P = 0.79) differences. Odor identification was also worse in older adults, particularly men (both P ≤ 0.01), without differences by race. Decreased cognitive function was associated with worse odor identification (P ≤ 0.01) but this relationship was weaker for odor sensitivity (P = 0.02) in analyses that adjusted for other covariates. Odor sensitivity was less strongly correlated with cognitive ability than odor identification, confirming that it may be a more specific measure of peripheral olfactory processing. Investigators interested in associations between olfaction and health should consider both odor sensitivity and identification when attempting to understand underlying neurosensory mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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气味敏感性与美国老年人气味识别的关系：与认知，年龄，性别和种族的关联。

识别气味的能力可预测发病率，死亡率和生活质量。它随年龄，性别和种族的不同而变化，并在绝大多数调查和临床文献中使用。但是，气味识别在很大程度上取决于认知。嗅觉的其他方面，例如气味敏感性，具有较小的认知成分。气味敏感性是否也受这些因素影响还没有得到确切的答案。我们分析了国家社会生活，健康与老龄化项目的数据，该项目是美国老年人的全国代表性研究（n = 2081）。使用Sniffin'Stick笔呈现的5种经过验证的气味测量气味识别，在6稀释正丁醇恒定刺激检测测试中，气味敏感性也是如此。多元顺序Logistic回归模型模拟了嗅觉与年龄，性别，种族，认知，教育，社会经济地位，社交网络特征以及身心健康。在没有性别（P = 0.56）或种族（P = 0.79）差异的老年人中，气味敏感性较差（P <0.01）。老年人，尤其是男性（均P≤0.01）的异味识别也较差，没有种族差异。认知功能下降与较差的气味识别（P≤0.01）相关，但在针对其他协变量进行调整的分析中，这种关系对气味敏感性较弱（P = 0.02）。与气味识别相比，气味敏感性与认知能力的相关性较弱，这证实这可能是外周嗅觉处理的更具体指标。