title: Good news for elderly persons: olfactory pleasure increases at later stages of the life span.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Numerous studies have been conducted collecting normative values dependent on age for the three major components of the Sniffin' Stick Test (threshold of n-butanol, and identification and discrimination of odors). Less is known about the influence of age on the hedonic and intensity evaluation of odors. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the influence of age on the hedonic and intensity estimates in a large human population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred one single data sets established the Hedonic Database of Smell-Franconia (HeDoS-F) with the parameters age, gender, odor threshold, odor discrimination, oder identification, intensity estimates, and hedonic estimates (median age: 39 years, interquartile range: 28, minimum age: 19, maximum age: 83, men: 103, women: 98). For olfactory testing the Sniffin' Stick Test was used, and hedonic and intensity estimates were registered using visual analogue rating scales. For statistical analysis, we separated the study population into three age groups (19-39 years, 40-59 years, and > or = 60 years), and parametric and nonparametric tests were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found a significant influence of age on threshold, discrimination, and identification with a decrease in the higher age class. Over all odors the summed intensity estimates did not depend on age, whereas the summed relative hedonic estimates increased with the beginning of the fifth decade.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that, for perceived odors, olfactory pleasure increases at later stages of the life span, whereas the perceived intensity of odors remains stable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. katrin.markovic@psych.imed.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Markovic
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Reulbach
authors.forename: Agapi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vassiliadu
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lunkenheimer
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lunkenheimer
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spannenberger
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thuerauf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric