The modified sniffin' sticks test in Turkish population based on odor familiarity survey

Objective: the current study aims to investigate the suitability of sniffin' sticks test (sst) for turkish normosmic population and make appropriate modifications in sniffin' sticks odor identification test for use in turkey. methods: following the application of standard sst (n=147),an odor familiarity survey was applied (n=360) and used for construction and application of modified sniffin' sticks test for turkish population (msst-t). results: mean scores for sst were as follows: odor threshold 7.7±2.8,odor discrimination 12.7±1.9,odor identification 12.4±2.0,total score (tdi; threshold,discrimination and identification) 32.8±4.3. odors that were not familiar to the population were determined by odor familiarity survey. the msst-t was developed by replacing unfamiliar odors with more familiar ones in items with low identification scores. msst-t was applied to 184 participants and identification scores were found to increase from %78.3 to %84.2 (p <.0001). conclusion: the odor familiarity as well as threshold,discrimination and identification measures of sst have been field-tested for normosmic population. with suitable modification of distracters in some identification test items,the test is expected to be reliably applicable for clinical use as well as for social,psychological and other research purposes in turkey.