ArticleChemical senses2023
Covid-19 affects taste independent of taste-smell confusions: results from a combined chemosensory home test and online survey from a large global cohort.
Article in Chemical senses, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unique and shared patterns of chemosensory dysfunction distinguish chronic COVID-19 and aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease.Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology · 2026Article
- Changes in olfactory function in children and adolescents with obesity following an inpatient weight loss program: a longitudinal study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Life satisfaction among cancer survivors with and without smell and taste dysfunction: evidence from the National Health Interview Survey.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Evaluating methods for quantitative olfactory assessment: a comparative longitudinal analysis of Sniffin' Sticks and alternative tools.Chemical senses · 2026Article
- Life Satisfaction Among Cancer Survivors With and Without Smell and Taste Dysfunction: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Effects of one year of extreme isolation in Antarctica on olfactory and gustatory functions.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neurological Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Changing Variants: A 4-Year DW-MRI Study on Olfactory and Taste-Related Brain Regions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Home screening of taste and oral trigeminal function: a feasibility study.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of COVID-19-associated olfactory dysfunction.Neuropathology and applied neurobiology · 2024Review
- Article
- Subjective versus Psychophysical Measures of Chemosensory Alterations following COVID-19.ORL; journal for oto-rhino-laryngology and its related specialties · 2024Article
- Article
- Transient loss and recovery of oral chemesthesis, taste and smell with COVID-19: a small case-control series.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 15 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
Abstract
People often confuse smell loss with taste loss, so it is unclear how much gustatory function is reduced in patients self-reporting taste loss. Our pre-registered cross-sectional study design included an online survey in 12 languages with instructions for self-administering chemosensory tests with 10 household items. Between June 2020 and March 2021, 10,953 individuals participated. Of these, 5,225 self-reported a respiratory illness and were grouped based on their reported COVID test results: COVID-positive (COVID+, N = 3,356), COVID-negative (COVID-, N = 602), and COVID unknown for those waiting for a test result (COVID?, N = 1,267). The participants who reported no respiratory illness were grouped by symptoms: sudden smell/taste changes (STC, N = 4,445), other symptoms excluding smell or taste changes (OthS, N = 832), and no symptoms (NoS, N = 416). Taste, smell, and oral irritation intensities and self-assessed abilities were rated on visual analog scales. Compared to the NoS group, COVID+ was associated with a 21% reduction in taste (95% confidence interval (CI): 15-28%), 47% in smell (95% CI: 37-56%), and 17% in oral irritation (95% CI: 10-25%) intensity. There were medium to strong correlations between perceived intensities and self-reported abilities (r = 0.84 for smell, r = 0.68 for taste, and r = 0.37 for oral irritation). Our study demonstrates that COVID-19-positive individuals report taste dysfunction when self-tested with stimuli that have little to none olfactory components. Assessing the smell and taste intensity of household items is a promising, cost-effective screening tool that complements self-reports and may help to disentangle taste loss from smell loss. However, it does not replace standardized validated psychophysical tests.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.