Association of ABO Blood Group and Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Study from a Ghanaian Population.

Samuel Smith,Chrissie Stansie Abaidoo,Emmanuel Acheampong,Isaac Okai

doi:10.1155/2018/8050152

Abstract

ABO blood group and body mass index (BMI) have individually been appraised as risk factors for certain diseases. From statistical perspective, it may be important to examine the relationship between the ABO blood antigen and BMI. This cross-sectional study involved 412 participants aged 18 to 46 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. Weight and height of participants were measured for BMI calculation; blood group determination was done using antisera. Blood group O was the most prevalent (51.2%), while Rhesus-positive individuals constituted 90.3%. 6.3% of the participants were obese, while 18.7% were overweight. There was significant (p=0.006) higher prevalence of obesity in females (10.3%) than in males (3.4%). The study did not observe any significant difference by association of ABO blood group with gender (p=0.973), BMI (p=0.307), or Rhesus status (p=0.723). Regarding gender (p=0.400) and BMI (p=0.197), no statistically significant difference was observed between Rhesus blood groups. The prevalence of overweight, obesity, blood type O, and rhesus positive observed among students in this study is largely similar to what has been reported in published studies in Ghana and from other countries. Overweight and obesity were not associated with ABO blood groups or Rhesus in this study.

Highlights

Introduction e distribution pattern of theABO blood antigen varies by the prevalence type among different populations in the world. e association between ABO blood group and several elements of the human population such as intelligence [1], socioeconomic status [2], diet [3], diseases [4], and others has long been suggested
D’Adamo’s [3] popular blood type diet, without proven scientific evidence, was theoretically based on the belief that each ABO blood group carries the genetic information of their diets [5]. us, Cusack et al [5] in a systematic review of published data on blood type diet concluded that there was no scientific proof to assess the effectiveness of the blood type diet. e authors recommended a validation study for the purported health benefits of blood type diets
Wang et al [6] conducted the first study to examine the association between blood type diets and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health in experimental and control groups. ey concluded that some benefits that may be derived from adherence to the one’s blood type diet are not directly attributable to the individual’s ABO blood status; blood type diet hypothesis is not valid scientifically

Summary

Research Article

Association of ABO Blood Group and Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Study from a Ghanaian Population. E association between ABO blood group and several elements of the human population such as intelligence [1], socioeconomic status [2], diet [3], diseases [4], and others has long been suggested Some of these reports such as from Gibson et al [1] and Beardmore and KarimiBooshehri [2] linking ABO blood type to intelligence and socioeconomic class, respectively, have been decades old, and the potential mechanism by which ABO antigens determine these consequences was not underscored. ABO blood group and BMI have individually been appraised as risk factors for certain illnesses, few studies [27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40] have been conducted to examine whether carrying a particular ABO blood antigen potentially predisposes one to higher body mass index. No study has been done to test the association of BMI and ABO blood group in a Ghanaian sample. erefore, this study was undertaken to examine the distribution and association of these two risk factors in a Ghanaian setting

Methodology

Results and Discussion

BMI categories

Gender Male Female