Cross-Cultural Application of the “Sniffin’ Sticks” Odor Identification Test

Abstract

After revision of the descriptors, the ''Sniffin' Sticks'' odor identification test appears to be suited for assessment of olfactory identification function in an Asian region.

Development of the Arabic version of the “Sniffin’ Sticks” odor identification test

“…Previous reports found that people often confuse nasal patency with olfactory abilities [19], and that self-assessments are accurate only when subjects perceive their sense of smell as bad or very bad [18]. We observed similar values of the 10th percentile of scores obtained by healthy participants comparing to results obtained in Czech Republic [20], Taiwan [11], Poland [21] and Germany [6], except for the oldest group ([55 years). This difference can easily be explained by the relatively small number of participants in that age group.…”

“…Finally, we compared the identification scores of normosmic subjects and people with olfactory disorders, controlling also for sex of the participants. Similar to former studies, we did not observe any differences in the ability to recognize odors between men and women [11,12], and we found significant differences between healthy subjects and people reporting olfactory disorders [18]. Although our analyses revealed a main effect of the degree of impairment on the SST identification test result, there was no significant difference between controls and patients with mild olfactory disorders.…”

“…''Sniffin' Sticks'' identification test requires the selection of one of four descriptors for each odor presented, and in order to accurately diagnose olfactory function, odorants and their descriptors need to be familiar to the subjects [11]. People representing different cultures easily recognize some odors and their names, whereas others might be unfamiliar to them, although the odor is clearly perceived.…”

“…It is a widely recognized test and academic databases indicate that it has been used in hundreds of studies around the world. However, cultural factors may cause difficulties with identifying odors [11] or their verbal descriptors [12]. Therefore, an adaptation of odor identification tests is often performed in order to obtain reliable results within different cultures [13][14][15][16].…”

OLAF: standardization of international olfactory tests

“…Conversely, despite their straightforward management, both the ''Sniffin Sticks'' identification subtest and the UPSIT share issues related to a high degree of cognitive processing [19], and of having a strong dependence on cultural contexts [30,46] in comparison with the threshold test. On the other hand, it seems that odor identification tests reflect everyday olfactory experiences to a higher degree than odor thresholds [8].…”