A Cross-sectional Study on Olfactory Function among Young Adult Smokers

Authors

  • Maria Cristina C. da Silva Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery,St. Luke’s Medical Center
  • Windolyn D. Panganiban Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery,St. Luke’s Medical Center

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32412/pjohns.v21i1-2.827

Keywords:

Olfaction, Smoking, Hyposmia, Anosmia

Abstract

Objective: To determine the olfactory function and/ or dysfunction of young adults who are cigarette smokers using a locally validated smell identification test.

 

Design: Cross-sectional study

 

Setting: Tertiary hospital in Metro Manila

 

Patients: The volunteer study group was composed of 60 male and 21 female students and employees of a tertiary hospital and its affiliated medical school (both in Quezon City). All subjects were young adults within the age range of 20-35 years with a mean age of 27. 58 years (±4.33). All the subjects were currently smoking cigarettes with no medical history of recent viral infection, nasal/sinus surgery, nasal/brain tumors, head trauma, radiotherapy, chronic rhinitides in exacerbation or tracheostomy. Olfactory function of each subject was evaluated using the Sto. Tomas Smell Identification Test (ST-SIT) which is a locally-validated test.

 

Results: Majority of the subjects fell within the 24-27 age group with a mean age of 27.58 years (±4.33). Males outnumbered females 74.1% as against 25.9%. An inverse relation between pack years and ST-SIT score was present indicating that there could be a dose-related effect of cigarette smoking on olfactory function.

Among the 81 subjects, 15 (18.5%) turned out to be anosmic, 46 (56.7%) were hyposmic and 20 (24.6%) had normal olfactory function. A mean ST-SIT score was computed at 81.183 (±}12.58), indicating that majority of the subjects had olfactory dysfunction, meaning they were hyposmic.

 

Conclusion: Smoking cigarettes has become part of the lifestyle of a lot of people in spite of its hazards to health. In the present study, a majority of supposedly healthy young adults who currently smoked cigarettes were proven to suffer from olfactory impairment based on the scores of a locally-validated smell identification test. An inverse relation between ST-SIT scores and pack years was also noted which may indicate a dose-related effect of smoking on olfactory function.

 

Keywords: Olfaction, Smoking,, Hyposmia, Anosmia

 

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Published

2006-11-29

How to Cite

1.
da Silva MCC, Panganiban WD. A Cross-sectional Study on Olfactory Function among Young Adult Smokers. Philipp J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg [Internet]. 2006 Nov. 29 [cited 2024 Nov. 18];21(1-2):28-30. Available from: https://pjohns.pso-hns.org/index.php/pjohns/article/view/827

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1-2 (2006): Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Section

Original Articles

License

Copyright transfer (all authors; where the work is not protected by a copyright act e.g. US federal employment at the time of manuscript preparation, and there is no copyright of which ownership can be transferred, a separate statement is hereby submitted by each concerned author). In consideration of the action taken by the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery in reviewing and editing this manuscript, I hereby assign, transfer and convey all rights, title and interest in the work, including copyright ownership, to the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Inc. (PSOHNS) in the event that this work is published by the PSOHNS. In making this assignment of ownership, I understand that all accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the PSOHNS and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the PSOHNS unless shared under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.