Smell tests can discriminate Parkinson's disease patients from healthy individuals: A meta-analysis

Background: Olfactory impairment is common in Parkinson's disease (PD). The authors aimed to identify the clinical tests used to assess olfactory function and examine their ability to distinguish PD with different disease duration from healthy individuals with physiological aging. Methods: Cross-sectional studies published until May 2020 that assessed the olfaction of individuals with PD using search terms related to PD, olfactory function, and assessment were searched on PubMed, PsycInfo, Cinahl, and Web of Science databases. Results: Twelve smell tests were identified from the reviewed studies (n = 125) that assessed 8776 individuals with PD. Data of 6593 individuals with PD and 8731 healthy individuals were included in the meta-analyses. Individuals with PD presented worse performance than healthy individuals, regardless of the smell test used. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was used by most studies (n = 2310 individuals with PD) and presented smaller heterogeneity. When the studies were subclassified according to the years of PD duration, there were no significant differences. Conclusion: All smell tests were able to discriminate the olfactory function of PD from that of healthy individuals, although the UPSIT was widely used. The abnormal olfaction was not related to the disease duration.

Automated summary

Evaluating olfactory function in PD patients, regardless of the type of smell test used, showed that PD patients performed worse than healthy individuals. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was widely used with lower heterogeneity, and there was no significant association between disease duration and abnormal olfaction.