Olfactory discrimination predicts cognitive decline amongst community-dwelling older adults

Authors

Hamid Sohrabi
Kristyn Bates, Edith Cowan University
Michael Weinborn
ANB Johnston
A Bahramian
Kevin Taddei, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Simon Laws, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Mark Rodrigues, Edith Cowan University
Michael Morici, Edith Cowan University
Matthew Howard, Edith Cowan University
Georgia Martins, Edith Cowan University
A Mackay-Sim
SE Gandy
Ralph Martins, Edith Cowan University

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Health and Science

School

School of Medical Sciences / Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease Research and Care

RAS ID

14147

Comments

Sohrabi, H. R., Bates, K. A., Weinborn, M. , Johnston, A., Bahramian, A., Taddei, K. , Laws, S. , Rodrigues, M. A., Morici, M. , Howard, M. T., Martins, G. S., Mackay-Sim, A., Gandy, S., & Martins, R. N. (2012). Olfactory discrimination predicts cognitive decline amongst community-dwelling older adults. Translational Psychiatry , 2, art. no. e118 . Available here

Abstract

The presence of olfactory dysfunction in individuals at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease has significant diagnostic and screening implications for preventive and ameliorative drug trials. Olfactory threshold, discrimination and identification can be reliably recorded in the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. The current study has examined the ability of various olfactory functions in predicting cognitive decline in a community-dwelling sample. A group of 308 participants, aged 46–86 years old, were recruited for this study. After 3 years of follow-up, participants were divided into cognitively declined and non-declined groups based on their performance on a neuropsychological battery. Assessment of olfactory functions using the Sniffin’ Sticks battery indicated that, contrary to previous findings, olfactory discrimination, but not olfactory identification, significantly predicted subsequent cognitive decline (odds ratio¼0.869; Po0.05; 95% confidence interval¼0.7640.988). The current study findings confirm previously reported associations between olfactory and cognitive functions, and indicate that impairment in olfactory discrimination can predict future cognitive decline. These findings further our current understanding of the association between cognition and olfaction, and support olfactory assessment in screening those at higher risk of dementia.

DOI

10.1038/tp.2012.43

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