Prevalence and recovery time of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in hospitalized patients with COVID‑19 in Wuhan, China
Hao Lv, Wei Zhang, Zhanyong Zhu, Qiutang Xiong, Rong Xiang, Yingying Wang, Wendan Shi, Zhifeng Deng, Yu Xu
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan using a telephone interview. METHODS: This retrospective telephone survey investigated 196 consecutive patients with COVID-19 at 3 months after discharge from two hospitals in Wuhan, China. The characteristics of the patient's disease course and time to recovery from olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction (OD and/or GD) were collected by telephone interview. Demographic data were collected from the patient medical records. RESULTS: A total of 196 patients with COVID-19 completed the study. The most prevalent general symptoms were fever, cough, and fatigue. Overall, 19.9% of the patients reported OD and/or GD. In 87.2% of these cases, OD or GD appeared after the general symptoms. The time to recovery from OD and/or GD was more than 4 weeks in 51.4% of the patients. Patients with COVID-19 and OD and/or GD had significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease than patients without OD and/or GD (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Recovery from chemosensory dysfunction (OD and/or GD) was slow, with over half of the patients taking more than 4 weeks to recover. Cardiovascular disease might be related to the development of olfactory or taste disorders in patients with COVID-19.