Relationship between Blood Groups and the Risk of Covid-19 Infection; a Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: ABO blood types are not known to cause diseases directly, but they can be vulnerable and surrender to diseases and health problems. This study aimed to evaluate the susceptibility to COVID-19 in individuals with different blood groups at different ages. Methods: An electronic health record was used in this retrospective cohort study at Shahid Beheshti Hospital. We studied 858 patients who were referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital, we identified 434 of them as COVID-19 patients using RT-PCR. An analysis of the electronic record involved collecting retrospective laboratory data and demographic information, including age, sex, and blood type. Next, we examined the differences between the ABO blood groups of COVID-19 patients and the control group (1991 case). We used SPSS26 for statistical computations. Data were scrutinizeed with the χ2 test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically outstanding. Results: Based on the distribution of ABO blood groups in 434 COVID-19 patients, it was revealed that 288 of them were male and 146 were female, and the majority of them were in their third decade of life. A total of 159 patients (36.6%) had type B blood, 116 had type A (26.7%), 109 had type O (25.1%), and 50 had type AB (11.5%). COVID-19 patients had a higher percentage of type B and AB blood than the control group. Conclusion: Our study found that the frequency ratio of blood group B was remarkably higher in patients than in the control group, which indicates that the blood group B may play a pivotal role in COVID-19 disease.

Keywords

• COVID-19, Endocrine Disorders, Metabolic Syndrome, Coronavirus.