Association between smell and taste dysfunction and obesity and metabolic syndrome in older adults

Background: Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MS) are prevalent and associated with negative health outcomes in the elderly. There is a need to identify risk factors for these diseases in this population. Methodology: The 2013-14 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used in this study. Adults aged 60 or under were categorized into normosmia, hyposmia, anosmia, and combined anosmia + hyposmia using the Pocket Sniff Test. Taste was evaluated using quinine and NaCl solutions. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to characterize associations between smell and taste status and obesity and MS. Results: In univariate obesity analysis, normosmia, combined anosmia + hyposmia, and 0.32M NaCl taste dysfunction were significant. 0.32M NaCl taste dysfunction remained significant in multivariate analysis. MS was significantly associated with only tongue tip quinine dysfunction in univariate and multivariate analyses. Conclusions: Salty taste dysfunction was found to be negatively associated with obesity while bitter taste dysfunction was found to be positively associated with MS.