Effect of Age and Gender on Taste Function as Measured by the Waterless Empirical Taste Test

Author:

Jiang Rong-San12ORCID,Chiang Yi-Fang3

Affiliation:

1. Department of Otolaryngology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407219, Taiwan

2. Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407219, Taiwan

3. School of Medicine, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112304, Taiwan

Abstract

The effect of age and gender on taste function is rarely investigated. Therefore, we tried to study the effect of age and gender on taste function as evaluated by the Waterless Empirical Taste Test (WETT®). The WETT® consists of 40 strips that are coated with one of five tastants (sucrose, citric acid, sodium chloride, caffeine, or monosodium glutamate). Each tastant is prepared with four different concentrations. These 40 strips are interspersed with an additional 13 tasteless strips. To implement the WETT®, a strip was placed on the middle portion of the tongue. The subjects closed their mouth and tasted the strip. They then chose one of six answers (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, brothy, or no taste at all). If the answer was correct, one score was acquired. One-hundred-and-twenty healthy men and women were collected in this study. Among them, there were 40 subjects in each age group of 20–39 years, 40–59 years, and ≥60 years. The overall taste and individual tastant function decreased with age, particularly between subjects aged 20–39 years and those aged ≥60 years. The overall taste and individual tastant function were better in females than in males, especially for subjects aged older than 59 years. Our results show that taste function is affected by both age and gender.

Funder

Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Clinical Biochemistry

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