Race may modify the association between blood type and COVID-19 infection

Jiajun Luo; Andrew Craver; Paul Zakin; Liz Stepniak; Kayla Moore; Jaime King; Muhammad G Kibriya; Julie Johnson; Christopher O Olopade; Jayant M Pinto; Karen Kim; Habibul Ahsan; Briseis Aschebrook-Kilfoy

doi:10.1002/jha2.539

Race may modify the association between blood type and COVID-19 infection

EJHaem. 2022 Jul 30;3(3):903-907. doi: 10.1002/jha2.539. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Jiajun Luo^{1

2

3}, Andrew Craver², Paul Zakin^{1

2}, Liz Stepniak^{1

2

3}, Kayla Moore^{1

2}, Jaime King^{1

2}, Muhammad G Kibriya^{1

2}, Julie Johnson⁴, Christopher O Olopade⁵, Jayant M Pinto⁶, Karen Kim^{2

3

5}, Habibul Ahsan^{1

2

3}, Briseis Aschebrook-Kilfoy^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health Sciences University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
² Institute for Population and Precision Health University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
³ Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
⁴ Center for Research Informatics University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
⁵ Department of Medicine University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.
⁶ Department of Surgery University of Chicago Chicago Illinois.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the race/ethnicity-specific association between blood type and COVID-19 susceptibility during March, 2020 and December, 2021 using data from the electronic health record at the University of Chicago Medicine. The study population was stratified into four groups: non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and other. Log-binomial generalized mixed model was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). When compared to blood type O, type B was associated with positive COVID-19 test in Blacks (RR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.02-1.23), Whites (RR = 1.28, 95% CI: 0.99-1.66), and Hispanic (RR = 1.36, 95% CI: 0.97-1.92).

Keywords: blood groups; epidemiology; infection.