A STUDY ON THE ASSOCIATION OF ABO BLOOD GROUP AND REFRACTIVE STATUS AMONG STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN
Abstract
Blood group is considered the most relevant during blood transfusion and has been
associated with different diseases from many studies. This study is aimed to investigate
the potential association between ABO blood group and refractive status among students
of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. A total number of 305 students of the University
were enrolled for this study. 122 (40%) of the participants were male while female
participants accounted for 183 (60%). The mean age (±SD) of the participants was 21.17
(±3.067). Blood group test was carried out at the University’s Health Clinic Laboratory
and their refractive statuses were obtained using retinoscopy. 163 (53.44%), 66
(21.63%), 46 (15.08%), 30 (9.83%) of the participants had blood group O, B, A and AB
respectively. Retinoscopy findings of the participants revealed 50 (16.4%) had
emmetropia, 114 (37.4%) had astigmatism, 62(20.3%) had hyperopia and 79 (25.9%)
were myopic. The association between ABO blood groups and refractive statuses was
statistically significant for myopia (p < 0.05) and statistically insignificant for the other
refractive statuses (p > 0.05). Blood group O displayed the highest relative risk of
occurrence for myopia, which suggested that individuals with blood group O are most
susceptible to myopia compared to other ABO blood groups and gender has no
significance on this correlation (p > 0.05). The need for further investigations of the
underlying mechanisms linking blood group and refractive status was recommended.
KEY WORDS: Blood group, refractive status, gender and retinoscopy
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