15:45 - 17:15
Tue-P1
Room: Waalsprong 4
Giving a voice to adults with COVID-19: An analysis of open-ended comments from smell longhaulers and non-longhaulers
Tue-P1-005
Presented by: Nick Menger
Nick Menger 1, Arnaud Tognetti 2, Michael Farruggia 3, Carla Mucignat 4, Surabhi Bhutani 5, Keiland Cooper 6, Paloma Rohlfs Dominguez 7, Thomas Heinbockel 8, Vonnie Shields 9, Anna D'Errico 10, Veronica Pereda-Loth 11, Denis Pierron 11, Sachiko Koyama 12, Ilja Croijmans 13
1 Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 2 Karolinska Institutet, CNS - Division of Psychology, 3 Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, 4 University of Padova, Department of Molecular Medicine, 5 School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, San Diego State University, 6 University of California, Irvine, 7 University of Basque Country. Dept. of Developmental and Educational Psychology. Avda. Sarriena, s/n, 48940 (Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain), 8 Howard University College of Medicine, Dept. of Anatomy, Washington, DC 20059, USA, 9 Biological Sciences Department, Fisher College of Science and Mathematics, Towson University, 10 Independent researcher; Patient Advocacy Committee GCCR, Freelance Smell expert and science writer, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 11 Laboratoire EVOLSAN, Université Toulouse III, France, 12 Indiana University, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, 13 Radboud University Nijmegen
Smell disorders are commonly reported with COVID-19 infection. Some patients show prolonged smell-related issues, even after the respiratory symptoms are resolved. To explore the concerns of patients, and to provide an overview for each specific smell disorder, we explored existing data from a longitudinal survey, and contained self-reports on the changes of smell that participants experienced at two time points. People who still suffered from smell disorders at the second time point, hence named ‘longhaulers’, were compared to those who were not, hence named ‘non-longhaulers’. Specifically, three aims were pursued in this study. First, to classify smell disorders based on the participants’ self-reports. Second, to classify the sentiment of each self-report using a machine learning approach, and third, to find specific keywords that best describe the smell dysfunction in those self-reports. We found that the prevalence of parosmia and hyposmia was higher in longhaulers than in non-longhaulers. Furthermore, the results suggest that longhaulers stated self-reports with more negative sentiment than non-longhaulers. Finally, we found specific keywords that were more typical for either longhaulers compared to non-longhaulers. Taken together, our work shows consistent findings with previous studies, while at the same time, provides new insights for future studies investigating smell disorders.