Centre for Policy on Ageing



Good news for elderly persons — olfactory pleasure increases at later stages of the life span
Author(s)	Katrin Markovic, Udo Reulbach, Agapi Vassiliadu
Journal title	Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 62A, no 11, November 2007
Pages	pp 1287-1293
Source	http://www.geron.org
Keywords	Smell [sense] ; Age groups [elderly] ; Germany.
Annotation	201 individuals (median age 39, maximum age men 103, women 98) participated in sensory measurements establishing the Hedonic Database of Smell Franconia (HeDoS-F). For olfactory testing, the Sniffin' Stick Test was used, and hedonic and intensity estimates were registered using visual analogue rating scales. For statistical analyses, the researchers separated the study population into three age groups: 19-39, 40-59. and 60+. They found a significant influence of age on threshold, discrimination and identification, with a decrease in the higher age class. Over all odours, the summed intensity estimates did not depend on age, whereas the summed relative hedonic estimates increased with the beginning of the fifth decade. This study suggests that, for perceived odours, olfactory pleasure increases at later stages of the life span, whereas the perceived intensity of odours remains stable. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-080305208 A
Classmark	BLQ: BB: 767
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.