Overview

• Published Sept. 25 in JAMA Network Open, the NIH RECOVER analysis tested 3,535 adults using the 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test.
• Among participants who reported post-COVID smell changes, 80% scored low on the objective test and 23% were severely impaired or anosmic.
• Sixty-six percent of infected participants who did not perceive any problem also had abnormal results, revealing substantial unrecognized hyposmia.
• Authors report unexpectedly high rates of poor performance among presumed uninfected participants and caution that incomplete COVID-19 testing may have led to misclassification.
• The study underscores safety and quality-of-life risks tied to hyposmia and notes ongoing work on potential treatments such as olfactory training and vitamin A, with taste not directly assessed.