Taste alteration in COVID-19: Significant geographical differences exist in the prevalence of the symptom

  1. Nicola Cirillo

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.jiph.2021.07.002
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.11.20192831: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The search was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE as well as medRxiv using advanced search (title and abstract) tool.
    PubMed/MEDLINE
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Other potential weaknesses are that measures for assessing GD were not validated and that the definition of dysgeusia is not unanimously accepted. Furthermore, the awareness of the occurrence of taste alterations in COVID-19 cases may have determined and increase of self-reported GD over time (Menni et al., 2020), and/or this symptom may have been increasingly investigated by doctors when taking history of suspected cases. Although the latter remains a possibility, our data failed to show a trend of increased GD prevalence over time, except in East Asia. Unlike other studies (von Bartheld et al., 2020) our analysis focused on the geographical location of the studies rather than ethnicity. Although this approach may fail to individuate genetic/ethnic determinants of infection, we believe that our methodology is better suited to study the clinical manifestations of the disease and to inform the decisions of public health surveillance bodies. Most studies relied on the individuals reporting about their subjective (self-reported) impressions, whereas a small number of studies used structured (objective) tests to assess taste dysfunction, for example by using substances with the four basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter) sprayed on the tongue in a supra-threshold dose. When a comparison between subjective and structured (objective) gustatory function was made, no significant differences were found (Agyeman et al., 2020). Therefore, self-reported taste alterations can be consid...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.11.20192831 on medRxiv