Two typical symptoms appear to be more common in young patients infected with the coronavirus, while much fewer symptoms appear in older people, according to a new scientific study. What are these?
Younger people with COVID-19 are more likely to lose their sense of smell and taste than older patients, according to a new study published in Infection Prevention in Practice Journal.
The Irish researchers examined 46 infected patients, who were asked to evaluate changes in smell and taste.
Almost half of the participants experienced disturbances in their sense of smell and taste, a phenomenon that is a known symptom of the infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But while older people are generally more vulnerable to other effects of COVID-19, younger patients were more likely to experience anaemia and tastelessness.
The research team evaluated the taste and smell functions of COVID-19 patients on a single day in late March, using a scale from 1 (no change) to 5 (very strong change).
As the results showed, almost half of the patients 22 out of 46, i.e. 48% reported some degree of loss of smell, while more than half 25 out of 46, i.e. 54% reported the loss of taste.
28% of patients (13 people) reported complete loss of smell, 17% (8 people) complete loss of taste and 15% (7 people) reported complete loss of both.
It is noted that taste and smell scores were not significantly related to sex, smoking or the presence of other diseases, however, the average age of patients with any degree of smell disturbance was significantly lower than that of patients without this symptom.
In particular, the average age of those with a smell disorder was 30.5 years, while those who did not have the symptom were 41 years. The corresponding ages for patients with and without the symptom of taste disorder were 34 and 40, with the researchers noting that younger patients were disproportionately affected by olfactory rather than taste disorders.
According to the study, loss of taste and smell in younger patients is likely to occur instead of more severe symptoms such as cough and fever, however, people should quarantine on their own if they notice these symptoms. which are officially recognized signs of the disease.
“These findings are evidence of loss of taste and smell in COVID-19 sufferers and demonstrate an increased incidence of such disorders in younger patients,” points out the study’s lead author, Colm Kerr from Dublin’s St. James Hospital.
At this point it should be emphasized that this study is a retrospective analysis of a small cohort of patients with COVID-19, so the results may not be representative of the presence of other data in patients with more severe forms of the disease, hence these disorders should be further investigated in more patients with varying degrees of severity of cases.