DIFFERENT BLOOD GROUPS

Objectives: To find out the association of body mass index with different bloodgroups in medical students. Background: Increased body mass index leads to obesity and is aprominent risk factor for hypertension and diabetes. Blood groups are known to be associatedwith various diseases and recent studies have shown that a particular blood group with thehighest body mass index appeared to be more susceptible to predisposition to hypertension.Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Liaquat National Medical College, Karachi.Period: June 2015 to September 2015. Methodology: 181 medical students with 85 malesand 96 females and age ranging from 18-22 years. Weight and height of each student wasmeasured using the standard stadiometer and blood groups were determined using the antisera.Results: Mean age of the participants was 19.92 ± 1.10 years. Blood group “O” wasfound to be most prevalent (39.2%) while blood group “AB” was found to be the least (8.3%).Mean BMI of subjects with blood group A, B, AB and O were found to be 24.3 ± 5.04, 22.6 ±3.59, 23.0 ± 2.91 and 23.7 ± 4.20 kg/m2 respectively. The highest BMI was found in subjectswith blood group “A” 24.3 ± 5.04 kg/m2 and lowest in blood group “AB” 23.0 ± 2.91kg/m2. TheRhesus-D positive and male students had greater body mass index 23.6 ± 3.56 than females23.2 ± 3.44. Comparison of overall mean BMI values among different blood groups showedsignificant difference with p-value < 0.001. Conclusion: Blood group “A” and Rhesus-D positivesubjects especially males were found to be the high risk blood type with predisposition tomorbidity associated with increased body mass index.