At-Home Smell Test Can Help ID Risk for Cognitive Impairment

WEDNESDAY, April 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The digital remote AROMHA Brain Health Test (ABHT) can discriminate cognitively normal (CN) older adults from those with cognitive impairment, according to a study published online March 24 in Scientific Reports.

Benoît Jobin, Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues developed the ABHT, an at-home odor identification, discrimination, memory, and intensity assessment, which was self-administered among 127 CN individuals (English and Spanish speaking), 34 participants with subjective cognitive complaints (SCC), and 19 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The test was self-administered remotely at home under unobserved (CN participants) and observed (CN, SCC, and MCI) modalities and in-person with a research assistant present (CN, SCC, and MCI).

The researchers found that with age, there was a decrease in odor memory, identification, and discrimination scores. In addition, compared with the CN and SCC groups, the MCI group had lower olfactory identification and discrimination, independent of age, sex, and education.

“These results suggest that the ABHT could be used in clinical research settings in different languages to explore the utility of olfactory biomarkers to predict the presence of blood-based, image-based, or cerebrospinal fluid-based biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease and longitudinal development of clinical symptoms,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to Aromha.

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