Rank order scaling in taste evaluation

✍ Scribed by Margaret G.E. Peterson; Marcia A. Testa

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 426 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4809
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-4809(86)90006-6

✦ Synopsis

A scoring system developed for comparing taste in two groups of individuals, patients with multiple sclerosis and a normal control group is described. The scoring system was extended to evaluate taste in renal patients paired by age and sex with controls. The results of the two comparisons are given. The scoring system can be used very flexibly in statistical comparison among groups and generated easily using a FORTRAN computer program. The use of this scoring system is compared with an alternative method which uses psychophysical functions. Q I%6 Academic Press. Inc.

Sufferers from many diseases complain of loss of taste, apparent loss of taste, or claim that they no longer enjoy foods as they used to. The examination and analysis of such complaints is extremely complex. The measurement is dependent on subjective reporting by the patient and on the maintenance of the subject's own rating standard. Yet the study of degenerative effects of many diseases requires the scientific linking of many such patient reports. What is the loss of taste to one patient may be ignored by another patient, depending on diet and outlook on life. However, within a population of patients, a significant number of similar complaints may emerge.

The analysis of data collected from a taste and smell clinic was undertaken in two ways. The first method uses psychophysical functions (log-log plots) to estimate a group mean. Computations were performed on the original data and the results of these computations were then input into the computer for analysis. The second method was developed using rank order scaling of components of taste and is presented in this paper. Here the original values are entered into the computer and suitable computations then made. The merits of the two systems are discussed.