Table 1.
Factors associated with olfactory or taste disorder among COVID-19 patients admitted to National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) from 24 March 2020 to 16 April 2020
| Factors | Total (n = 1065) | Smell or taste disorder | Univariate analysis | Multivariate analysis | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absent (n = 931) | Present (n = 134) | RR (95% CI) | p value* | aRR (95% CI) | p value + | ||
| Demographics | |||||||
| Age (years) | 34 (28–42) | 34 (28–42) | 34 (29–41) | – | 0.942 | – | – |
| Gender | |||||||
| Female | 132 (100) | 97 (73.48) | 35 (26.51) | 3.04 (1.96–4.72) | < 0.001 | 1.765 (1.045–2.981) | 0.033 |
| Male | 933 (100) | 834 (89.38) | 99 (10.61) | (reference) | (reference) | ||
| Race | |||||||
| Chinese | 154 (100) | 119 (77.27) | 35 (22.72) | 2.41 (1.57–3.71) | < 0.001 | – | 0.175 |
| Indian | 221 (100) | 196 (88.68) | 25 (11.31) | – | 0.570 | – | – |
| Malay | 47 (100) | 38 (80.85) | 9 (19.14) | – | 0.175 | – | – |
| South East Asian | 40 (100) | 31 (77.5) | 9 (22.5) | – | 0.083 | – | – |
| Bangladeshi | 568 (100) | 520 (91.54) | 48 (8.45) | 0.44 (0.30–0.64) | < 0.001 | – | 0.156 |
| Caucasian | 27 (100) | 19 (70.37) | 8 (29.62) | 3.05 (1.31–7.11) | 0.014 | – | 0.161 |
| Other races | 8 (100) | 8 (100) | 0 (0) | – | 0.606 | – | – |
| Associated symptoms | |||||||
| Blocked nose | |||||||
| Yes | 69 (100) | 46 (66.66) | 23 (33.33) | 3.98 (2.33–6.82) | < 0.001 | 3.308 (1.873–5.841) | < 0.001 |
| No | 995 (100) | 884 (88.84) | 111 (11.15) | (reference) | |||
| Runny nose | |||||||
| Yes | 193 (100) | 156 (80.82) | 37 (19.17) | 1.89 (1.25–2.87) | 0.004 | – | 0.069 |
| No | 871 (100) | 774 (88.86) | 97 (11.13) | (reference) | |||
| Cough | |||||||
| Yes | 624 (100) | 541 (86.69) | 83 (13.3) | – | 0.453 | – | – |
| No | 441 (100) | 390 (88.43) | 51 (11.56) | – | |||
| Sore throat | |||||||
| Yes | 388 (100) | 332 (85.56) | 56 (14.43) | – | 0.179 | – | – |
| No | 677 (100) | 599 (88.47) | 78 (11.52) | – | |||
| Fever | |||||||
| Yes | 818 (100) | 737 (90.09) | 81 (9.9) | 0.40 (0.27-0.59) | <0.001 | 0.415 (0.278-0.619) | <0.001 |
| No | 246 (100) | 193 (78.45) | 53 (21.54) | (reference) | |||
| Diarrhoea | |||||||
| Yes | 71 (100) | 54 (76.05) | 17 (23.94) | 2.36 (1.32–4.20) | 0.005 | – | 0.053 |
| No | 993 (100) | 876 (88.21) | 117 (11.78) | (reference) | |||
| Other symptoms | |||||||
| Yes | 442 (100) | 397 (89.81) | 45 (10.18) | 0.68 (0.46–0.99) | 0.049 | – | – |
| No | 622 (100) | 533 (85.69) | 89 (14.3) | (reference) | |||
For continuous variables, median (interquartile range) were shown. For categorical variables, number (percentage) were shown
RR relative risk, aRR adjusted relative risk, CI confidence interval
*p values for univariate analysis were calculated by Mann–Whitney U or χ2 tests
+p values for multivariate analysis were calculated by binary logistic regression
– Not included in multivariate model
Bold values indicate that the statistically significant