15:30 - 17:00
Fri-P2
Planck Lobby & Meitner Hall
Validation of SCENTinel in a large COVID-19 testing sample
Fri-P2-084
Presented by: Valentina Parma
Valentina Parma 1, Benjamin Schalet 2, Anne Zola 2, Stephanie Hunter 1, Micheal Kallen 2, Emily Ho 2, Gregory Smith, Jr 2, Chad Achenbach 2, Richard Gershon 2, Pamela Dalton 1
1 Monell Chemical Senses Center, 2 Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
SCENTinel, a rapid multifunction smell test, is a candidate tool to enable population surveillance of smell disorders. To examine its potential, we carried out a cross-sectional investigation on a sample seeking outpatient SARS-CoV-2 testing at Northwestern Medicine sites throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from April 2021. Up to April 2022, individuals conducted 2,413 SCENTinel tests, of which 1,557 (64%) were examined after participants were matched to medical record data containing contemporaneous SARS-CoV-2(PCR) findings. Data collection is still ongoing. These preliminary analyses include data from 1,557 SCENTinel tests (64%, initial N = 2,413) matched with medical record data containing SARS-CoV-2(PCR) results concurrent to SCENTinel completion. This preliminary sample includes 62%F, 76% white, age: 49±16 years old; 4-5% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection (ndelta=50; ndelta+omicron=74). The SCENTinel components (odor detection, intensity, and identification) had moderate-to-high correlations (r=0.35-0.84, average to Cronbach's alpha of 0.44) with the total SCENTinel score. Self-reported smell loss was only related to SCENTinel’s odor intensity (r=-0.11). The SCENTinel-overall score was marginally related to SARS-CoV-2+ in the delta group (r=-0.09), with major influence by SCENTinel’s odor intensity (r=-0.27), whose mean scores were significantly lower (Cohen’s d=-0.76). Both self-reported smell loss and SCENTinel-overall were uniquely predictive of SARS-CoV-2delta+, according to regression analysis. SCENTinel-overall was highly specific (89%) and predictive of SARS-CoV-2delta+, even controlling for self-reported smell loss. The low sensitivity of SCENTinel (28%) could reflect asymptomatic infection.