INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF VACCINATION STATUS ON TASTE AND SMELL IN INDIVIDUALS WITH CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19)
1Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi, Dil ve Konuşma Terapisi Bölümü, Ankara, Turkey2Etlik Şehir Hastanesi, KBB Anabilim Dalı, Ankara, Turkey Objective: Changes in smell and taste are one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19. It is aimed at determining the frequency of taste and smell changes in individuals with COVID-19 and examining the effect of different doses of the vaccine on these changes.
Material and Methods: A 20-question Google Survey, in which only individuals who have had COVID-19 can participate, was created. The study was conducted with a total of 350 people (307 females and 43 males), with a mean age of 30.126± 8.534 years.
Results: The most common symptoms were headache in 70% of cases (n = 254) and change in taste or smell in 69.4% (n= 243). 35.8% (n=87) of the participants did not recover their taste and smell changes. There was no statistically significant relationship discovered between the number of vaccine doses and the presence or severity of taste or smell changes (p>0.05).
Conclusion: In this study, patients with a high prevalence of COVID-19 experienced taste and/or smell changes. It was observed that the dosage amount of the vaccine did not prevent taste and smell changes, nor did it reduce their severity. Changes in taste and smell may impair the quality of life and thus negatively affect individuals socially and psychologically. Therefore, there is a need to develop effective treatments other than vaccination to prevent taste and smell changes in COVID-19 patients, reduce their severity if they occur, treat them, and increase the rate of recovery.
Keywords : Smell, taste, vaccination, coronavirus, olfaction