In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, countries have implemented various strategies to reduce and slow the spread of the disease in the general population. For countries that have implemented restrictions on its population in a stepwise manner, monitoring of COVID-19 prevalence is of importance to guide the decision on when to impose new, or when to abolish old, restrictions. We are here determining whether measures of odor intensity in a large sample can serve as one such measure. Online measures of how intense common household odors are perceived and symptoms of COVID-19 were collected from 2440 Swedes. Average odor intensity ratings were then compared to predicted COVID-19 population prevalence over time in the Swedish population and were found to closely track each other (r = −0.83). Moreover, we found that there was a large difference in rated intensity between individuals with and without COVID-19 symptoms and the number of symptoms was related to odor intensity ratings. Finally, we found that individuals progressing from reporting no symptoms to subsequently reporting COVID-19 symptoms demonstrated a large drop in olfactory performance. These data suggest that measures of odor intensity, if obtained in a large and representative sample, can be used as an indicator of COVID-19 disease in the general population. Importantly, this simple measure could easily be implemented in countries without widespread access to COVID-19 testing or implemented as a fast early response before widespread testing can be facilitated.

中文翻译：

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瑞典人群中气味强度估计值与 COVID-19 流行率预测之间的关系。


为了应对 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行，各国实施了各种战略，以减少和减缓该疾病在普通人群中的传播。对于已逐步对其人口实施限制的国家来说，监测 COVID-19 的流行情况对于指导决定何时实施新的或何时废除旧的限制非常重要。我们在这里确定大样本中气味强度的测量是否可以作为这样的测量之一。我们收集了 2440 名瑞典人对常见家庭气味的感知强度和 COVID-19 症状的在线测量数据。然后将平均气味强度评级与瑞典人口中随着时间推移预测的 COVID-19 人群流行率进行比较，发现彼此密切跟踪（ r = -0.83）。此外，我们发现有和没有 COVID-19 症状的个体之间的评级强度存在很大差异，并且症状的数量与气味强度评级相关。最后，我们发现，从报告没有症状到随后报告出现 COVID-19 症状的个体表现出嗅觉性能大幅下降。这些数据表明，如果在大量且具有代表性的样本中获得气味强度的测量值，则可以用作普通人群中 COVID-19 疾病的指标。重要的是，这一简单的措施可以在无法广泛进行 COVID-19 检测的国家轻松实施，或者作为在促进广泛检测之前的快速早期应对措施。