Abstract P068: Associations Between Taste and Smell Alterations and Diabetes-Related Comorbidities Among US Adults: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2011-2014

Abstract

There is evidence that taste and smell dysfunctions may be associated with type 2 diabetes. Due to sparse data, it remains unclear to what extent taste and smell impairment is related to diabetic complications. We thus aimed to examine the associations between smell and taste alterations and diabetes/prediabetes with and without comorbidities by utilizing the nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collected between 2011 and 2014. Analyses were conducted on 7,027 participants aged 40 to 80 years, of whom 2609 were healthy people, 2625 pre-diabetic patients, and 1793 diabetic patients. Either taste or smell disorder was, respectively, defined as at least one adverse alteration through self-reported questions. Crude prevalence of taste and smell disorders among healthy population, diabetic/prediabetic patients with and without comorbidities were calculated. Weighted logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between declined ability of taste, smell senses and diabetes/prediabetes with and without comorbidities, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, neuropathy, and retinopathy. The multivariate-adjusted models controlled for age, sex, race, BMI, education, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, and family history of diabetes. Compared to healthy people (prevalence was 15.5% for taste and 19.4% for smell impairment), prediabetic/diabetic patients without comorbidities (taste: 19.2%; smell: 21.1%), and prediabetic/diabetic patients with comorbidities (taste: 22.8%; smell: 28.0%) had higher prevalence of diminished capacity in taste and smell. After adjustment for confounders in our models, significant associations remained between taste and smell impairment and prediabetes/diabetes with comorbidities (taste: OR 1.79, 95% CI (1.31, 2.45); smell: OR 1.52, 95%CI (1.17, 1.97)), but not without comorbidities versus healthy people (taste: OR 1.15, 95% CI (0.85, 1.54); smell: OR 1.10, 95% CI(0.89, 1.37)), and were not modified by age, sex, and race. Furthermore, we conducted sensitivity analyses for individual comorbidities and found that cardiovascular disease and neuropathy were consistently associated with reduced ability in both taste and smell. In conclusion, our results from national data indicate that taste and smell alterations may be possible predictors of the presence and progression of prediabetes/diabetes.