4-6歳児のニオイ同定力と成人嗅覚検査の幼児への適用方法の予備的検討

In this study, we developed a method to apply the adult odor test to children and measured the actual odor identification in 4- to 6-year-old children using the adult odor test method. The Odor Stick Identification Test for the Japanese (OSIT–J) was used to test the ability to identify 12 familiar odors. Results showed that the odor identification task had a response rate of 45.2±13.8%, which was the same as that of the previous study despite the inclusion of odor stimuli that children had little contact experience with. In relation to vocabulary identification task and contact experience scores, vocabulary identification score was higher than all odor identification scores, indicating a tendency to not be able to identify the odor as well when the target was unknown. We examined the relationship between tasks, and there was a significant trend only in the odor identification and vocabulary identification scores (r = 0.42, p = 0.07). The present study showed that 4- to 6-year-old children were able to understand and carry out the OSIT–J procedures by adding and confirming these procedures to the adult olfactory tests as well.