Impaired Odor Identification of Culturally Familiar Odorants Associated with Dementia in South Korean Older Adults

Among olfactory functions, odor identification is the most studied predictor of dementia. We aimed to verify whether patients with dementia are less aware of specific odors than cognitively normal individuals using an odor identification test, which includes odorants that are culturally familiar to South Koreans. We divided 139 older adults aged 57–79 years into the dementia and normal cognition groups. Odor identification function was assessed in all participants. We conducted hierarchical logistic regression analyses with the diagnosis of dementia as a dependent variable and three demographic characteristics, as well as 12 odor identification items, as independent variables. Impaired odor identification for herbal medicine (odds ratio (OR) = 9.420; p = 0.012) and Korean grilled meat (OR = 5.361; p = 0.019) and older age (OR = 1.176; p = 0.005) were significant predictors of dementia. Impaired odor identification of culturally familiar odorants was associated with dementia risk. This may be explained by the fact that compared with culturally non-specific universal odorants, familiar odorants are more related to episodic memory, which is impaired in the early stages of dementia. Thus, an optimal combination of odor identification items should be used for screening individuals with cognitive decline requiring further neurocognitive function tests.