Development of the Chinese Odor Identification Test (COIT)

Olfactory dysfunction is an important early indicator for many neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. Smell identification tests have been developed and widely used for olfaction function assessment. However, the test validity could be compromised when applying to different countries, as the results can be strongly influenced by personal experience with tested odors. To date, standardized smell identification test using common odors for mainland Chinese is yet to be established. In this study, we conducted a series of experiments, attempting to develop the first standardized odor identification test in mainland China. Chinese daily odor items were firstly pooled and selected by an online survey of 888 subjects, followed by odor recognition evaluation of 52 odorants among 95 individuals. The final odor identification test consists of 36 odor items, and we show that this test has reasonably good test-retest reliability and validity. This test could be an efficient measure for the impairment of smell senses among mainland Chinese.