Olfactory dysfunction and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Zhuoshen Lin, Wenjing Liao, Meiqian Xu, Tianlong Li, Lijuan Song, Gui Chen, Huakang Du, Guofei Feng, Zhiming Feng, Qi Zhang, Yabang Chen, Jiayi Liu, Baoxin Peng, Jianlei Xie, Xiaowen Zhang · 2026
Read Olfactory dysfunction and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis by Zhuoshen Lin, Wenjing Liao, Meiqian Xu, Tianlong Li, Lijuan Song, Gui Chen, Huakang Du, Guofei Feng, Zhiming Feng, Qi Zhang, Yabang Chen, Jiayi Liu, Baoxin Peng, Jianlei Xie, Xiaowen Zhang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13425369.txt.
Description
Lin and colleagues published a 2026 review on smell loss as a sign of raised death risk. Poor smell is common in older adults and ties to brain aging. The team pooled cohort studies that tracked smell and later deaths. Fourteen studies qualified, with twelve feeding the main pooled analysis.
Adults with smell loss faced about a fifth higher death risk overall. Correcting for possible publication bias softened the estimate to about nine percent higher. The link survived checks that removed one study at a time. How each study tested smell changed the strength of the link. The authors back standard smell tests in routine checks for older adults. Standard tests would also let clinics build personal risk profiles sooner.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zhuoshen Lin, Wenjing Liao, Meiqian Xu, Tianlong Li, Lijuan Song, Gui Chen, Huakang Du, Guofei Feng, Zhiming Feng, Qi Zhang, Yabang Chen, Jiayi Liu, Baoxin Peng, Jianlei Xie, Xiaowen Zhang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 42 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |