ABO Blood Groups and Incidence of COVID-19 in the Mass Gathering Events in Borriana (Spain), March 2020: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Salvador Domènech-Montoliu,
Joan Puig-Barberà,
Olga Guerra-Murcia,
María Rosario Pac-Sa,
Alejandro Orrico-Sanchéz,
Lorna Gómez-Lanas,
Diego Sala-Trull,
Carmen Domènech-Leon,
Alba Del Rio-González,
Manuel Sánchez-Urbano,
Paloma Satorres-Martinez,
Marta Latorre-Poveda,
Sara Ferrando-Rubert,
Laura Aparisi-Esteve,
Gema Badenes-Marques,
Roser Blasco-Gari,
Juan Casanova-Suarez,
María Fontal-Carcel,
María Gil-Fortuño,
Noelia Hernández-Pérez,
David Jovani-Sales,
Laura López-Diago,
Cristina Notari-Rodríguez,
Oscar Pérez-Olaso,
María Angeles Romeu-Garcia,
Raquel Ruíz-Puig,
Alberto Arnedo-Pena
Affiliations
Salvador Domènech-Montoliu
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Joan Puig-Barberà
Vaccines Research Unit, Fundación Para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana, FISABIO-Public Health, 46020 Valencia, Spain
Olga Guerra-Murcia
Vaccines Research Unit, Fundación Para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana, FISABIO-Public Health, 46020 Valencia, Spain
María Rosario Pac-Sa
Public Health Center, 12003 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Alejandro Orrico-Sanchéz
Vaccines Research Unit, Fundación Para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana, FISABIO-Public Health, 46020 Valencia, Spain
Lorna Gómez-Lanas
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Diego Sala-Trull
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Carmen Domènech-Leon
Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, 12006 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Alba Del Rio-González
Health Centers I and II, 12530 Borriana, Spain
Manuel Sánchez-Urbano
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Paloma Satorres-Martinez
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Marta Latorre-Poveda
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Sara Ferrando-Rubert
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Laura Aparisi-Esteve
Carinyena Health Center, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Gema Badenes-Marques
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Roser Blasco-Gari
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Juan Casanova-Suarez
Nursing Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12548 Vila-real, Spain
María Fontal-Carcel
Health Center, 12600 La Vall d’Uixó, Spain
María Gil-Fortuño
Microbiology Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Noelia Hernández-Pérez
Microbiology Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
David Jovani-Sales
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Laura López-Diago
Clinical Analysis Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Cristina Notari-Rodríguez
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Oscar Pérez-Olaso
Microbiology Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
María Angeles Romeu-Garcia
Public Health Center, 12003 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Raquel Ruíz-Puig
Emergency Service University Hospital de la Plana, 12540 Vila-real, Spain
Alberto Arnedo-Pena
Public Health Center, 12003 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Our objective was to estimate the incidence of COVID-19 and the ABO blood Groups in the mass-gathering events (MGEs) during the Falles Festival in Borriana (Spain) from 6–10 March 2020. We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study and measured anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and the ABO of participants. We performed laboratory COVID-19 tests and obtained the ABO in 775 subjects (72.8% of the original exposed cohort): O-group (45.2%), A-group (43.1%), B-group (8.5%) and AB-group (3.4%). Adjusted for confounding factors, including COVID-19 exposure during the MGEs, attack rates of COVID-19 for each ABO group were 55.4%, 59.6%, 60.2%, and 63.7%. The adjusted relative risks were for O-group 0.93 (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.83–1.04), for A-group 1.06 (95% CI 0.94–1.18), for B-group 1.04 (95%CI 0.88–1.24), and for AB-group 1.11 (95% CI 0.81–1.51) with no significant differences. Conclusions: Our results suggest no effect of ABO on COVID-19 incidence. We observed weak but not significant protection of the O-group and not a significantly greater infection risk for the remaining groups compared with the O-group. More studies are needed to resolve the controversies regarding the association between ABO and COVID-19.
