Are blood groups linked to obesity and mental health? : a cross sectional study

Background: Mental health (stress, anxiety, depression etc.) and obesity have become global concerns in recent years leading to many health concerns like metabolic syndrome. Sedentary lifestyle, over-nutrition (high caloric/fatty diet), substance abuse etc. can contribute to the above as "modifiable factors". The purpose of the present study is to determine if "non modifiable factors" like blood group can be an attributing factor for causation of these disorders and whether any particular blood group is more predisposed to them. This study was taken up to explore the differences in psychological heath and physical health among various blood groups in a group of normal healthy young individuals and to assess if blood group can be considered as a predictor of obesity and poor psychological health. Objectives: To explore the differences in BMI, perceived stress and psychological morbidity among different blood groups in young healthy adolescents. Materials and Methods: Two hundred healthy adolescents were included in the study after applying exclusion criteria and taking informed consent. Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and General Health Questionaire-12 were used to assess stress and psychological morbidity respectively. The height and weight of the subjects were measured and blood groups were assessed using agglutination reaction. Statistical Analysis: Data was entered in Microsoft excel (2011) and was analyzed using SPSS 16. The values have been represented as Mean± SD. The mean values have been compared among different blood groups using ANOVA and unpaired “t” test. Association has been found using Chi square test. p<0.05( two tailed) has been taken as statistically significant. Results: Out of 200 students (143 males, 57 females), 72 had O blood group (36%), followed by 68 having B (34%), 46 having A (23%) and 14 having AB blood group (7%). 189 were Rh positive (94.5%) whereas only 11 were Rh negative (5.5%). The results showed no significant differences between different blood groups with regards to BMI or psychological health (PSS and GHQ-12). However, PSS scores were significantly worse in females as compared to males (p<0.01).