title: Olfactory function in Wave 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the sense of smell, including sensitivity and odor identification, and characterize the U.S. national prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in older adults, thereby facilitating further investigation of the substantial risks for older adults associated with this basic sensory ability.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sense of smell was evaluated using the Olfactory Function Field Exam (OFFE), a measure designed specifically for field research, which assesses 3 components of olfaction: sensitivity to n-butanol (a standard testing odorant) and androstadienone (AND, a key social odor produced by humans), as well as the ability to identify odors. Respondents were randomly selected from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project Wave 2 sample to receive the OFFE (n = 2,304), and 2,212 consented to participate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the U.S. population aged 62-90, n-butanol detection ability was significantly worse at older ages (ordinal logistic regression, p < .001); however, there was no difference in detection ability between genders (p = .60). AND detection ability was also significantly worse at older ages (p = .003), but in contrast to n-butanol, women outperformed men (p = .001). As expected, odor identification ability was worse in older people than in younger (p < .001), and women were more accurate than men (p = .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report for the first time 3 facets of olfactory function and its association with age and gender in a representative sample of U.S. older adults. Future analyses of these data are needed to elucidate the sense of smell's role in physical, social, and mental health with aging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Human Development, Institute for Mind and Biology, dkern@uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kern
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Studies.
authors.forename: Kristen E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Wroblewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Studies.
authors.forename: L Philip
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Schumm
authors.affiliation: Section of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Surgery.
authors.forename: Jayant M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.affiliation: Pritzker School of Medicine, and.
authors.forename: Rachel C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Human Development, Institute for Mind and Biology, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Martha K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: McClintock
mesh_terms: D020001:1-Butanol; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged / Q000502:physiology; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000730:Androstadienes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000730:Androstadienes; D020001:1-Butanol
keywords: Aging; Androstadienone; Odor identification; Olfaction.; n-Butanol