Increased Prevalence of Dysgeusia in Pediatric Patients Diagnosed with COVID-19.

An altered sense of taste (dysgeusia) has been associated with COVID-19 infection in adults but is not sufficiently documented in children. The purpose of this study was to assess the odds ratio for dysgeusia associated with COVID-19 in a pediatric population of a major health center. Deidentified aggregate data, provided by the chief data officer (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside-I2B2) from June 2015 to October 2020, was used for correlation using the dysgeusia code (ICD 10 R43.2) with and without positivity for COVID-19. COVID-19 patients were measured from January 2020 to October 2020. Among the 552 children who tested positive for COVID-19, nine also tested positive for dysgeusia and were older than nine years of age (odds ratio equals 149.5; 95 percent confidence interval equals 66.9 to 334.3; P<0.001). Based on a strong association between COVID-19 and dysgeusia in children, dental professionals treating children are recommended to include questions about recent changes in appetite and taste as part of their patient screening COVID-19 questionnaire.