Abstract
The recent development of a standardized, microencupsulated odorant test of olfactory function. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) has permitted the study of smell identification abilities of relatively large groups of people. The present study compared scores on this test between a group of Japanese and a group of American subjects.
One-hundred and ninety native Japanese people were given the Japanese, translated from English, UPSIT to complete. Sixty-four were men and 126 were women. The age range of the group was 18-63 with a mean age of 23.65 years (SD=6.42). Scores from the test administered to a group of Americans were compared to the scores from the Japanese sample. The American group of 190 subjects was matched on the basis of age, sex, and smoking habits.
The results were obtained as follows:
1) The mean correct on UPSIT for the Japanese and the American groups was 32.64 (SD=3.43) and 37.55 (SD=2.42), respectively. A t-test between the means of the two groups was statistically significant (p<0.001).
2) Basic differences between the groups on the total number of correct responses per item were evaluated. The total number of correct responses per item is shown in Table 1 and 2 for the Japanese and the American groups, respectively. A rank value assigned to each item and listed next to the total score permitted a further, analysis on the order of correct responses.
3) A Spearman Rank-Order Coefficent was employed on these ranks to determine the extent to which the two groups had similar orders. Only a slightly moderate correlation existed (p<0.01) between the groups.
4) For each of the 40 odours, a chi-squre, analysis was performed to determine which items had significantly different response patterns. The results of these 40 analyses are shown in Table 3. Twenty-one of these items were determined to have different correct/incorrect rations. On four of these odours, the Japanese groups had a better ratio, but not at significance (p<0.05).
