engleski

An examination of sensory sensitivities of adolescents in relation to nutritional state and sex

This work investigates into sensory sensitivity of adolescents. Their sensory capabilities were interpreted with respect of nutritional state (according to BMI and RBW) and sex. Sensory evaluation included basic taste identification test, odor identification test and determination of taste recognition thresholds. In basic taste identification test girls identified the tastes significantly better (p=0.048). The difference between obese and normal-weight children is only significant for the RBW-based groups. In threshold test we found no difference between sexes, nor between obese and normal-weight children for sweet, which agrees with earlier findings on adults. The same applies to sour and bitter tastes. For salty, however, the difference in means is statistically significant both between sexes (p=0.016), and between obese and normal-weight children according to BMI (p=0.006) and RBW (p=0.002). Apparently, girls and obese group recognized the taste better. Girls also recognized odors slightly better than boys (p=0.047). A difference between children of different nutritional state in sensitivity to odors exists only for the RBW-based groups (p=0.041). The presented results neither confirm nor refute the hypothesis of greater sensory sensitivity in obese adolescents. Some of the observed differences should give rise to further research into the relationship between sensory sensitivity and obesity in adolescence.

adolescent obesity; sensory sensitivity; basic taste identification; odour identification; recognition threshold

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