{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:52:36Z","timestamp":1760151156486,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,25]],"date-time":"2022-02-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1645747200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases of post-infectious olfactory dysfunction (PIOD) has substantially increased. Despite a good recovery rate, olfactory dysfunction (OD) becomes persistent in up to 15% of cases and further research is needed to find new treatment modalities for those patients who have not improved on currently available treatments. Social media has emerged as a potential avenue for patient recruitment, but its role in recruiting patients with smell dysfunction remains unexplored. We conducted a survey using the AbScent Facebook page to evaluate the feasibility of using this platform for future studies on smell dysfunction. Materials and Methods: Between 26 October and 4 November 2021, we conducted an online survey to evaluate propensity of patients with PIOD who would be willing to participate in research studies on smell dysfunction. Results: Sixty-five subjects were surveyed with a response rate of 90.7%. The median visual analogue scale (VAS) for sense of smell was 0 at infection and 2 at survey completion. The median length of OD was 1.6 years, and the main cause of OD was SARS-CoV-2 (57.6%). Parosmia was reported in 41 subjects (69.5%) whilst phantosmia in 22 (37.3%). The median length of olfactory training (OT) was 6 months but subjectively effective in 15 subjects (25.4%). Twenty-seven subjects (45.8%) tried other medications to improve olfaction, but only 6 participants (22.2%) reported an improvement. All subjects expressed their propensity to participate in future studies with most of them (38; 64.4%) willing to be enrolled either in medical and surgical studies or to be part of a randomised study design (11; 18.6%). Conclusions: Using the AbScent Facebook platform we successfully selected a population of subjects with persistent and severe OD that have failed to improve on available treatments and are willing to participate in further clinical trials.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina58030348","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,27]],"date-time":"2022-02-27T20:47:17Z","timestamp":1645994837000},"page":"348","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["The Role of Social Media in Improving Patient Recruitment for Research Studies on Persistent Post-Infectious Olfactory Dysfunction"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"58","author":[{"given":"Alfonso Luca","family":"Pendolino","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of ENT, Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospitals, London WC1E 6DG, UK"},{"name":"Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Annakan V.","family":"Navaratnam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of ENT, Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospitals, London WC1E 6DG, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Juman","family":"Nijim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical School, University College London, London WC1E 6DE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christine E.","family":"Kelly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"AbScent, Andover SP10 2PA, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Premjit S.","family":"Randhawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of ENT, Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospitals, London WC1E 6DG, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Peter J.","family":"Andrews","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of ENT, Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospitals, London WC1E 6DG, UK"},{"name":"Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"Position paper on olfactory dysfunction","volume":"56","author":"Hummel","year":"2016","journal-title":"Rhinology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jafar, A., Lasso, A., Shorr, R., Hutton, B., and Kilty, S. 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