Background Nasal pressure injury diseases have a high incidence among military pilots, and olfactory system diseases have become one of the most important factors affecting the health and flight safety of flights.
Objective To establish the quantitative detection method and normal reference values of quantitative olfactory function test in military pilots and provide references for evaluating olfactory function.
Methods By adopting the cross-sectional survey method, 118 healthy male military pilots were selected as the subjects, with age ranging from 18 to 43 (average age of 24.09 ± 6.62) years. The olfactory threshold, olfactory discrimination, and olfactory identification tests were performed separately and the normal reference range for each test was calculated in
\overlinex 
± 1.64 s. The correlations between the results of each test, age, smoking, and drinking were analyzed.
Results The results of olfactory threshold, olfactory discrimination and total test scores of 118 military pilots were 10.87 ± 3.77, 11.49 ± 1.86, 57.73 ± 5.94, respectively, olfactory identification was 36.00(IQR: 34.00 - 37.00), and the normal reference ranges for each of these values were 4.69 - 17.05, 8.44 - 14.54, 30.70 - 40.00, and 47.99 - 67.47. There was no correlation between olfactory function test scores and the subject’s age (P>0.05). There was no statistical difference in all test results between the smoking and non-smoking groups and between the drinking and non-drinking groups (P>0.05).
Conclusion This study has established the quantitative detection method and normal reference values of olfactory function for military pilots, which provide references for aviation medical identification during the selection of flight attendants, and medical examination of pilots.
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