Demographics, Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of 123 Cases of Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) with Anosmia.

Publication date: Jul 01, 2025

Anosmia has been recently recognized as a symptom of coronavirus disease (Covid-19). This study aimed to define demographics, the clinical course of anosmia in relation to other clinical symptoms, outcome of anosmia in Covid-19 positive patients. This cross-sectional study including all consecutive patients with confirmed Covid-19 from March 8th 2020 to March 7th 2021 at the National Heart Foundation Hospital & Research Institute of Bangladesh. There was subjective evaluation of olfactory function. A total of 769 patients were included in this study. Of whom 123(16. 0%) patients had anosmia and 646 (84. 0%) were without anosmia. Patients with anosmia were younger (37. 07+/-13. 23 years vs. 50. 27+/-15. 16 years), predominantly female (52. 0% vs. 48. 0%) and had fewer co-morbidities (p=0. 001). Fever (87. 8% vs. 61. 0%), fatigue (74. 8% vs. 18. 9%), cough (60. 2% vs. 32. 7%), body ache (53. 7% vs. 11. 9%) and headache (52. 0% vs. 9. 9%) were the most common findings in patients with anosmia. Nasal congestion symptoms were more prevalent in patients with anosmia {32 cases (26. 01%)} compared to patients without anosmia {38 cases (5. 88%)} (p=0. 001). Most of the patients with anosmia were treated either in home isolation or in institutional isolation (74. 8% vs. 16. 3%) and most of the patients without anosmia were hospitalized (83. 7% vs. 25. 2%). Patients with anosmia had milder course and good in-hospital outcome [0% case fatality rate (CFR) vs. 4. 2% CFR; p=0. 02] as compared to patients without anosmia. Patients with anosmia are usually younger and more frequently female, have a less co-morbidity, a milder course, a lower probability of hospitalization, and associated with favorable prognosis as compared with patients without anosmia.

Semantics

Original Article