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Published on: February 21, 2020
Study on the sense of taste in a group of Sicilian centenarians
G Receputo1, G Mazzoleni, I D Fazio
1Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, University of Catania, Via Messina, 829, l-95126 Catania, Italy.
Abstract:
The sense of taste was studied in a group of 20 centenarians from Eastern Sicily, displaying a mini mental state examination (MMSE) score higher than 19. Control subjects were 20 adult (mean age 27.7 +/- 3.2 years) and 20 elderly subjects (mean age 71.3 +/- 5.5 years). Although it has been revealed that centenarians retain considerably the capacity to perceive tastes, they displayed statistically significant reductions (p < 0.001) in taste functions for sweet, sour, salty and bitter, as compared to both the adult and elderly controls.
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