Relationship between Blood Group and the Risk of COVID-19 Infection

Abstract

Introduction: Since the Covid-19 pandemic, research has focused on identifying people at risk and preventing its spread. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between blood groups (ABO) and the risk of COVID-19 infection in Shahroud.

Methods: This study is an analytical cross-sectional study. Data from suspected cases of Covid-19 were collected in Shahroud by the Corona Registration System from the beginning of the epidemic in February 2020. In this study, confirmed cases of Covid-19 were defined as those that had a positive RT-PCR test. Logistic regression was used in order to investigate the relationship between ABO and COVID-19 infection, and other variables, such as co-morbidities, age, and gender also were adjusted.

Results: In this study, the highest percentage of positive PCR was for B type (49.6%) and then AB (43.1%), but this difference was not significant. In the modeling, a significant relationship was observed between B type and Covid-19 infection, so that the risk is 56% higher. Also, in the study of the relationship between non-O blood groups and adjusted for

the variables of age, gender, and comorbidities, it was shown that non-O blood type compared to O blood type increased the odds of infection by35% significantly. Rh did not show a significant association with infection.

Conclusion: This study showed that non-O blood types have higher odds of developing Covid-19 compared to the O blood type. Among the various blood types, type B increases the odds of infection by 56%.