Olfactory assessment in the Chinese pediatric population.

ABSTRACT

Young children with olfactory disturbance are sometimes encountered in ENT clinics. We investigated the clinical applicability of olfactory testing to the pediatric population in China.One hundred and ninety-three healthy children aged 6 to 17 years were enrolled. All participants were asked for demographic information (age, sex, body mass index [BMI], and rating of olfactory function) in a structured questionnaire and underwent olfactory testing including T&T Olfactometer (T&T), odor discrimination (OD), and odor identification (OI) tests of Sniffin' Sticks.Age had a significant influence on the outcome of olfactory testing, sex, BMI, or self-rating had no influence. Children had better performance on T&T than OI and OD tests of Sniffin' Sticks.T&T and Sniffin' Sticks can be completed by Chinese children. Performance on olfactory tests increased with increasing age. T&T may be more suitable to assess olfactory function in the Chinese pediatric population.