predictors of olfactory impairment among northern iranian population

Introduction: the performance in most smell identification tests is subjected to cultural variations. this study aimed to evaluate age, gender, and smoking-related effects on the test performance in the north of iran. materials and methods: the olfactory function of 1470 eligible subjects was assessed in this study. moreover, this study evaluated the influence of age, gender, and education on the test scores. results: according to the results, females obtained higher mean test scores, compared to males (18.4 vs. 17.6). in general, the elderly obtained lower scores, and about 30% of the subjects who were ≥65 years of age had severe hyposmia or anosmia. furthermore, the olfactory impairment frequency in smoker subjects was significantly more than non-smokers (p<0.001). test scores were generally higher in subjects with higher education levels. logistic regression analysis revealed that the total number of cigarette doses in smokers and age had a significant association with olfactory dysfunction (p value <0.001 and 0.004, respectively). cronbach’s α of iran-sit was obtained at 0.78 which was more than an acceptable value of 0.7. conclusion: the findings of this study revealed that a low score in the iran-sit correlated with smoking, older age, low education level, and gender (male).