Cargando…

Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking

A common symptom of COVID-19 is altered smell and taste. This qualitative study sought to further characterise this altered chemosensory perception and its effects on appetite for food and drink. Eighteen women and two men who had experienced chemosensory loss associated with COVID-19 participated i...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Turner, Lydia, Rogers, Peter J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871400/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206083
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11040607
_version_ 1784656987781332992
author Turner, Lydia
Rogers, Peter J.
author_facet Turner, Lydia
Rogers, Peter J.
author_sort Turner, Lydia
collection PubMed
description A common symptom of COVID-19 is altered smell and taste. This qualitative study sought to further characterise this altered chemosensory perception and its effects on appetite for food and drink. Eighteen women and two men who had experienced chemosensory loss associated with COVID-19 participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed five major themes. These confirmed that all participants had experienced an altered sense of smell (anosmia, and less frequently parosmia and phantosmia) of variable duration. Loss of taste (ability to detect sweetness, saltiness, etc.) was less common. Participants experienced decreased, no change or increased appetite, with six participants reporting weight loss. Consistent with evidence linking diminished appetite with inflammation, for two participants, decreased appetite preceded anosmia onset. Anosmia reduced enjoyment of food and drink. Compensatory strategies included choosing salty, sweet and ‘spicy’ foods, and increased attention to food texture, and there was evidence that the postingestive rewarding effects of food intake were also important for maintaining appetite. Some participants mentioned increased alcohol intake, in part facilitated by reduced intensity of disliked flavours of alcoholic drinks. The narratives also underlined the value placed on the sociability and structuring of time that daily meals provide. This research adds to the record and analysis of lived experiences of altered chemosensory perception resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, and it contributes insights concerning the role of smell and flavour in motivating and rewarding food ingestion.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8871400
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88714002022-02-25 Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking Turner, Lydia Rogers, Peter J. Foods Article A common symptom of COVID-19 is altered smell and taste. This qualitative study sought to further characterise this altered chemosensory perception and its effects on appetite for food and drink. Eighteen women and two men who had experienced chemosensory loss associated with COVID-19 participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed five major themes. These confirmed that all participants had experienced an altered sense of smell (anosmia, and less frequently parosmia and phantosmia) of variable duration. Loss of taste (ability to detect sweetness, saltiness, etc.) was less common. Participants experienced decreased, no change or increased appetite, with six participants reporting weight loss. Consistent with evidence linking diminished appetite with inflammation, for two participants, decreased appetite preceded anosmia onset. Anosmia reduced enjoyment of food and drink. Compensatory strategies included choosing salty, sweet and ‘spicy’ foods, and increased attention to food texture, and there was evidence that the postingestive rewarding effects of food intake were also important for maintaining appetite. Some participants mentioned increased alcohol intake, in part facilitated by reduced intensity of disliked flavours of alcoholic drinks. The narratives also underlined the value placed on the sociability and structuring of time that daily meals provide. This research adds to the record and analysis of lived experiences of altered chemosensory perception resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, and it contributes insights concerning the role of smell and flavour in motivating and rewarding food ingestion. MDPI 2022-02-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8871400/ /pubmed/35206083 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11040607 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Turner, Lydia
Rogers, Peter J.
Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking
title Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking
title_full Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking
title_fullStr Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking
title_full_unstemmed Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking
title_short Varied Effects of COVID-19 Chemosensory Loss and Distortion on Appetite: Implications for Understanding Motives for Eating and Drinking
title_sort varied effects of covid-19 chemosensory loss and distortion on appetite: implications for understanding motives for eating and drinking
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871400/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35206083
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11040607
work_keys_str_mv AT turnerlydia variedeffectsofcovid19chemosensorylossanddistortiononappetiteimplicationsforunderstandingmotivesforeatinganddrinking
AT rogerspeterj variedeffectsofcovid19chemosensorylossanddistortiononappetiteimplicationsforunderstandingmotivesforeatinganddrinking