Prevalence and Characteristics of Altered Sense of Smell/Taste During Covid-19 first wave: A French Nationwide Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Aim: Altered sense of smell and/or taste is a leading symptom of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but its prevalence at a population-level is unknown.

Methods: From a questionnaire addressed to a representative subset of the French general adult (≥18-year) population over a 6-week period during the first French lockdown (April 7 to May 19 2020), self-reported new cases of altered sense of smell and/or taste were collected.

Results: From 29,660 participants, new altered sense of smell and/or taste was 2.18% and 2.11% after direct standardization on the French population representing more than 1,110,000 subjects in France. Moreover, 0.5% of participants reported a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, among which 47.4% reported a newly altered sense of smell and/or taste. Male participants, younger ones together with those presenting with chronic condition had higher odds of reporting a newly altered sense of smell and/or taste.

Conclusion: This study provides an accurate estimate of new cases of altered sense of smell and/or taste in the general population at a nationwide level during the Covid-19 first wave.

Keywords: Altered olfaction; Altered smell; Covid-19; Epidemiology.