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.

Neurophobia in medical students and junior doctors--blame the GIK.

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to create a definition of neurophobia, and determine its prevalence and educational risk factors amongst medical students and junior doctors in Singapore. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We surveyed medical students and junior doctors in a general hospital using electronic and paper questionnaires. We asked about knowledge, interest, perceived difficulty in neurology, and confidence in managing neurology patients compared to 7 other internal medicine specialties; quality and quantity of undergraduate and postgraduate neuroscience teaching, clinical neurology exposure, and postgraduate qualifications. Neurophobia was defined as ≤4 composite score of difficulty and confidence with neurology. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-eight medical students (63.5%) and 131 junior doctors (73.2%) responded to the questionnaire. Neurophobia prevalence was 47.5% in medical students, highest amongst all medical subspecialties, and 36.6% in junior doctors. Multivariate analysis revealed that for medical students, female gender (OR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.3 to 6.7), low interest (OR 2.5, 95% CI, 1.0 to 6.2), low knowledge (OR 10.1, 95% CI, 4.5 to 22.8), and lack of clinical teaching by a neurologist (OR 2.8, 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.6) independently increased the risk of neurophobia. For doctors, low interest (OR 3.0, 95% CI, 1.3 to 7.0) and low knowledge (OR 2.7, 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.2) independently increased the risk of neurophobia, and female gender was of borderline significance (OR 2.0, 95% CI, 0.9 to 4.6). CONCLUSION: Neurophobia is highly prevalent amongst Singapore medical students and junior doctors. Low interest and knowledge are independent risk factors shared by both groups; female gender may also be a shared risk factor. The mnemonic GIK (Gender, Interest, Knowledge) identifies the risk factors to mitigate when planning teaching strategies to reduce neurophobia.