Covid-19 patients experience reduced sense of taste and smell for longer

Patients with mild Covid-19 infections experience a significantly increased and longer lasting sense of taste and smell. This is also the case for long-term shortness of breath, although relatively few people are affected. And women and the elderly are particularly affected. This is shown by new research results from Aarhus University Hospital and West Jutland Regional Hospital.

The past 14 months have taught us that there are different symptoms and outcomes of Covid-19. However, the vast majority of people who become ill with Covid-19 show mild symptoms and recover from the disease within two to three weeks.

These are precisely some of the people who were the subject of a new study by AUH, HEV, and AU. In the study, researchers compared symptoms on a daily basis for up to 90 days in 210 healthcare workers who tested positive and 630 with a negative test.

Each day, participants received a link to a questionnaire indicating whether they had experienced any of the following symptoms in the past 24 hours: cough, sore throat, headache, fever, muscle pain, shortness of breath, and decreased blood pressure. taste and smell.

“We have seen that the prevalence of a longer lasting reduced taste and odor is dramatically increased in patients with mild Covid-19 disease who did not require hospitalization. This pattern is also observed. for shortness of breath, but far fewer people were affected, ”says Henrik Kolstad, who is behind the study.

Women and the elderly experience more symptoms

Thirty percent of those who tested positive and almost none of the participants who tested negative reported a decrease in taste and smell over the full ninety days. At the start of the project, shortness of breath was reported by twenty percent of those who tested positive, the figure dropping to five percent after thirty days, never reaching the level of participants who had tested negative.

Cough, sore throat, headache, muscle aches, and fever were more common in people testing positive than those testing negative in the first few days, but after thirty days no increase was seen.

Women with a positive test reported more symptoms compared to women with a negative test than did men with a positive test compared to men with a negative test. The same was true for older and younger participants. According to the researcher, this could indicate that women and the elderly are more likely to develop symptoms of COVID-19 in the long term.

This study provides detailed knowledge of the symptom pathways you can expect after testing positive for COVID-19 without requiring hospitalization. ”

Henrik Kolstad