Having a poor sense of smell in later life may have negative implications for a woman’s social life, a new study on older women’s sense of smell suggests.
Researchers found that older women who performed poorly on an odour identification test had less active social lives, compared with women who performed well on the odour test.
Senior study author Johan Lundström, Ph.D., of the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, PA, and colleagues recently published their results in the journal Scientific Reports.
For their study, Lundström and colleagues set out to determine whether a loss of sense of smell in later life might influence social behaviour. “You hear anecdotal accounts from women who have lost their sense of smell about having fewer friends than they had previously,” notes Lundström
To reach their findings, the researchers analysed data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSLHP), including a sample of 3,005 men and women from the United States aged between 57 and 85.
As part of the NSLHP, participants were required to complete an odour identification test. Information on participants’ social lives was also gathered.
Compared with older women who performed well on the odour identification test, those who performed poorly were found to have fewer friends and close relatives, and they also socialised less frequently.
The study results remained after accounting for a number of possible confounding factors, including participants’ education level, smoking status, and physical and mental health problems.
Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that older women experiencing a decline in their sense of smell may want to think about maintaining their social life in order to improve their health and well-being.
Furthermore, the team says that the findings indicate that such women may benefit from smell training.
Lundström said, “This intriguing sex difference could suggest that smell training, which has been shown to improve a reduced sense of smell in both men and women, may have an additional beneficial function in older women by helping to restore both the sense of smell and, by extension, social well-being.”
Further research is needed to determine the mechanisms that underlie the link between sense of smell and social life, say the authors. Future studies should also investigate whether a decline in sense of smell affects the social lives of younger women.
