PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mubaraki, Adnan A.
AU  - Alrbaiai, Ghaida T.
AU  - Sibyani, Afnan K.
AU  - Alhulayfi, Rahaf M.
AU  - Alzaidi, Reema S.
AU  - Almalki, Haneen S.
TI  - Prevalence of anosmia among COVID-19 patients in Taif City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
AID  - 10.15537/smj.2021.1.25588
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - Saudi Medical Journal
PG  - 38--43
VI  - 42
IP  - 1
4099  - http://smj.org.sa/content/42/1/38.short
4100  - http://smj.org.sa/content/42/1/38.full
SO  - Saudi Med J2021 Jan 01; 42
AB  - Objectives: To assess the prevalence of anosmia in coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) patients. Coronavirus-19-related anosmia and hyposmia is a new emerging concept in the medical literature.Methods: A retrospective study on COVID-19 patients with anosmia and hyposmia was performed during the period between May-July, 2020. The inclusion criteria were all clinically stable COVID-19 patients >15 years old with positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Patients who refused to participate or leave incomplete questions were excluded. In this study, we investigated 1022 patients who met our criteria.Results: Olfactory dysfunction (OD) was reported by 53% of our COVID-19 patients, of which 32.7% were anosmic and 20.3% were hyposmic. Other neurological symptoms included ageusia (51.4%), fatigue (63%), myalgia (59.2%), and headache (50.9%), all of which showed significant association with OD. In addition, anosmia had a significant association with young age and female gender. However, there was no association between OD and pre-existing neurological disease.Conclusion: Half of our COVID-19 patients presented OD (anosmia/hyposmia), which often associated with ageusia and many neurological symptoms.