Background

Olfactory loss is associated with poor quality of life, malnutrition, and increased risk of depression, yet few studies have examined unawareness of olfactory dysfunction in men living with HIV (MLWH).

Method

MLWH (n = 51) completed olfaction self-ratings, psychophysical odor identification testing, cognitive measures, and questionnaires assessing smell habits, mood, cognitive failures, and quality of life. The sensitivity and specificity of olfactory self-ratings was calculated, and t-tests were used to examine factors contributing to discordance between self-rated and psychophysical olfaction dysfunction.

Results

We found that 33.3% (17 of 51 MLWH) of our sample demonstrated discordance between self-reported and psychophysical olfactory scores. Those unaware of olfaction dysfunction reported using less scented products in daily life but showed no other differences across demographic, clinical, or cognitive indices.

Conclusions

Our results cohere with prior studies of cognitively normal older adults, traumatic brain injury, and Parkinson’s disease, which found that olfactory self-ratings may inadequately capture the full range of a person’s olfactory status. Our work extends these findings to MLWH, with discordance rates ranging from 35 to 61% for self-rated and psychophysical olfactory dysfunction.

Implications

Given the differing rates of self-rated and psychophysical olfaction in our sample, psychophysical olfactory measures may be useful to consider in the neuropsychological assessment and clinical care of PLWH.

中文翻译：

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艾滋病毒感染者自评和心理生理嗅觉障碍的初步研究

背景

嗅觉丧失与生活质量差、营养不良和抑郁症风险增加有关，但很少有研究调查过艾滋病病毒感染者 (MLWH) 对嗅觉功能障碍的无意识。

方法

MLWH（n  = 51）完成了嗅觉自我评级、心理物理气味识别测试、认知测量和评估嗅觉习惯、情绪、认知失败和生活质量的问卷调查。计算了嗅觉自评的敏感性和特异性，并使用t检验检查导致自评和心理生理嗅觉功能障碍之间不一致的因素。

结果

我们发现我们的样本中有 33.3%（51 名 MLWH 中的 17 名）表现出自我报告和心理物理嗅觉评分之间的不一致。那些没有意识到嗅觉功能障碍的人报告说他们在日常生活中使用了气味较少的产品，但在人口统计学、临床或认知指数方面没有显示出其他差异。

结论

我们的结果与之前对认知正常的老年人、创伤性脑损伤和帕金森病的研究一致，后者发现嗅觉自我评级可能无法充分捕捉一个人的嗅觉状态的全部范围。我们的工作将这些发现扩展到 MLWH，自评和心理生理嗅觉功能障碍的不一致率在 35% 到 61% 之间。

启示

鉴于我们样本中自评和心理物理嗅觉的不同比率，心理物理嗅觉测量可能有助于在 PLWH 的神经心理学评估和临床护理中考虑。