Association of Parental ABO Phenotypes with Gender of the Child

Abstract

Background: The study of blood groups is not only important in blood transfusion and organ transplant practices but prevalence of its types is also important in genetic research, anthropology and inheritance related studies. Objective: To find the association of parental ABO phenotypes with the gender of the child born. Material and Methods: This was a prospective, observational study, performed from Nov 2016 to June 2017on 332 fertile couples experienced child birth in a teaching tertiary care hospital. ABO & Rh Blood grouping of these couples was performed by microplate hem-agglutination method and maternal record of all the couples was recorded for live birth including gender of child. Results: There were total 555 live births from 332 fertile couples including 279 females (50.3%) and 276 males (49.7%) with average of 1.67 births per mating in which B-B and AB-A had maximum rate of 1.80 each and lowest as1.40 in A-AB. AB-O combination had maximum male child (72.7%) and A-A had female child (70.4%). Overall sex ratio was 1.01.Association of the gender of the child born and parents mating type was found insignificant (p=0.269). Further it was found that O type father had maximum female child (55.6%) and AB type had maximum male child (55.3%). Statistically it was also found insignificant (p >0.050). Conclusion: It was concluded that different mating types of the parents having same and different ABO and Rh phenotypes and type of paternal phenotype has no effect on the gender of the child born. These results may help the researchers in the genetic and anthropology related studies and to understand the inheritance related issues.