Effects of blood group types on risk of infection, disease severity, and mortality in COVID-19 patients

Year 2022, , 374 - 378, 15.03.2022

Emin Gemcioğlu , Salih Başer , Osman İnan , Emra Asfuroglu Kalkan , Bagdagul Guler , Selma Karaahmetoğlu , İmran Hasanoğlu , Rahmet Güner , Esra Copuroglu , İhsan Ateş

https://doi.org/10.32322/jhsm.1036266

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Aim: COVID-19 is an epidemic communicable disease that has been declared as a pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Clinical studies have demonstrated that advanced age and comorbid conditions enhance the severity of the infection. The objective of this study was to examine the of effects of blood group types on risk of infection, disease severity, and mortality in COVID-19 patients.
Material and Method: Included in this study were 1618 patients who had been diagnosed with PCR confirmed COVID-19 infection. The age, gender, blood type, disease severity, need for intensive care, and deaths of the patients were analyzed retrospectively. For the distribution of the blood types in a healthy population, statistics for the blood types of individuals in Ankara for 2020 were obtained from the Republic of Turkey Red Crescent Blood Services and used as a healthy control group for comparison with the data of the patients included in the study.
Results: Among the COVID-19 patients, blood type A was the most common type at a rate of 46.2%. This was followed by blood type O at a rate of 28.4%. The least common blood type was found to be type AB at a rate of 9%. When compared to the healthy population, blood type A was determined to be statistically significantly more common in COVID-19 infection (p=0.07,). In contrast, blood type O was determined to be less common when compared to the healthy population (p<0.001). No statistically significant differences were determined between the blood types and the risk of severe disease and mortality rate.
Conclusion: Based upon the results of the study, it can be hypothesized that blood group type O may be protective against the risk of contracting the disease and the development of severe infection, while blood group type A may be associated with an increased risk of contracting the disease. However, it was determined that there were no statistically significant associations of mortality and the development of severe disease with ABO blood types.

Keywords

Blood Groups, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Disease Severity, Mortality

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