3. Results:
Table 1 shows the demographics and frequencies of reported
symptoms. Questionnaires were completed for 77 participants; 38 males
and 39 females. The mean age was 55 years (25-94). There were 31
(40.3%) staff members, 32 inpatients (41.6%) and 14 outpatients
(18.2%). We consider these participants to have mild-moderate disease
as the majority of those with more severe disease were excluded as
unable to answer the questionnaire reliably or it was deemed
inappropriate to ask. The staff predominantly worked on medical wards
(39%), surgical wards (23%) and the emergency department (23%); and
mainly comprised of nurses (35%), health care assistants (32%) and
doctors (22%), as well as catering and administrative staff.
Fatigue was the most commonly reported symptom at 80.5%, followed by
fever (70%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%).
Thirty-nine (50.6%) participants reported a change in their smell and
40 (51.9%) a change in taste, with few reporting one without the other.
Due to the strong association (p<0.001) between taste and
smell, further analysis is reported with these combined as OTDs,
individual associations are reported in Table 2 . Participants
with a new OTD were significantly younger (mean 48.3, SD=15.1) than
those without (mean 62.6, SD=21.2), t(77)= -3.34, p=0.001. As can be
seen by the frequencies cross-tabulated in Table 2, there was a
significant relationship (p<0.05) between reporting an OTD and
a sore throat, sensation of nasal blockage, fatigue and fever. OTDs were
also more commonly reported by staff (64.5%) and outpatients (78.6%)
than inpatients (37.5%), p=0.016. OTDs were not significantly
associated with gender, nasal discharge, facial pain, diarrhoea or
nausea.
None of the 43 who reported an OTD had occupational exposure to
chemicals and two were smokers. A sudden onset was reported in 28 of
these 43 (65.1%). Of those who reported a change in smell, 26 (66.7%)
reported total anosmia, 9 (23.1%) hyposmia, and the rest reported
dysosmia (10.3%). Four participants reported a change in taste only: 3
described hypogeusia and 1 dysgeusia.
OTDs were reported to have developed before the cardinal symptoms in 5
cases (11.6%), after in 21 participants (48.8%), at around the same
time in 14 (32.6%) and 3 participants were unsure of timing (6.9%).
Twenty-three participants (53.5%) had complete resolution of OTDs at
the time of interview: 4 (17.4%) within several days, 6 (26.1%) at
approximately 1 week and 13 (56.5%) longer than a week.