Olfactory taste disorder as a presenting symptom of COVID-19: a large single-center Singapore study

PURPOSE: To investigate the prevalence and epidemiological risk factors of olfactory and/or taste disorder (OTD), in particular isolated OTD, in patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective and cross-sectional study. Patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection were recruited from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) Singapore between 24 March 2020 and 16 April 2020. The electronic health records of these patients were accessed, and demographic data and symptoms reported (respiratory, self-reported OTD and other symptoms such as headache, myalgia and lethargy) were collected. RESULTS: A total of 1065 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were recruited. Overall, the prevalence of OTD was 12.6%. Twelve patients (1.1%) had isolated OTD. The top three symptoms associated with OTD were cough, fever and sore throat. The symptoms of runny nose and blocked nose were experienced by only 29.8 and 19.3% of patients, respectively. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the female gender, presence of blocked nose and absence of fever were significantly associated with OTD (adjusted relative risks 1.77, 3.31, 0.42, respectively). All these factors were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Patients with COVID-19 infection can present with OTD, either in isolation or in combination with other general symptoms. Certain demographic profile, such as being female, and symptomatology such as the presence of blocked nose and absence of fever, were more likely to have OTD when infected by COVID-19. Further studies to elucidate the pathophysiology of OTD in these patients will be beneficial.