Background

A card-type odor identification test called the “Open Essence (OE),” consisting of 12 types of everyday odors familiar to Japanese people, was recently developed. In this study, we calculated the cut-off value of the OE score for screening for age-related olfactory decline.

Methods

Participants aged 23 to 91 performed the OE test. After we confirmed that the OE score differed significantly between young/middle-aged adults (under 65 years old) and elderly adults (over 65 years old), we assumed that the young/middle-aged group had normal olfactory ability, whereas the elderly group had experienced a decline in odor identification ability. We then performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis using the OE score.

Results

The cut-off value of the OE score for screening for age-related olfactory decline, calculated on the basis of the ROC curve, was 8.

Conclusion

Individuals with the OE scores of 7 or less may have age-related olfactory decline. Our finding suggests that this cut-off value could be used to screen Japanese people with age-related olfactory decline.

Implication

The OE test is self-administered and has a cut-off value of the OE score for screening for age-related olfactory decline. Therefore, it is expected to be useful in mass screening for elderly adults.

中文翻译：

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使用专为日本人设计的卡片式气味识别测试筛查与年龄有关的嗅觉下降

背景

最近开发了一种卡片式气味识别测试，称为“开放性（OE）”，它由日本人熟悉的12种日常气味组成。在这项研究中，我们计算了OE评分的临界值，以筛选与年龄有关的嗅觉下降。

方法

23至91岁的参与者进行了OE测试。在我们确认青年/中年成年人（65岁以下）和老年人（65岁以上）的OE得分显着不同后，我们假设青年/中年组的嗅觉能力正常，而老年人组的气味识别能力下降。然后，我们使用OE分数执行了接收器工作特性（ROC）分析。

结果

根据ROC曲线计算出的用于筛选年龄相关性嗅觉下降的OE评分的截止值为8。

结论

OE评分为7或更低的个人可能会出现与年龄有关的嗅觉下降。我们的发现表明，该临界值可用于筛选与年龄相关的嗅觉下降的日本人。

意义

OE测试是自我管理的，具有OE得分的临界值，可用于筛选与年龄相关的嗅觉下降。因此，有望在老年人的大规模检查中有用。