An agnostic study of associations between ABO and RhD blood group and phenome-wide disease risk

Background: There are multiple known associations between the ABO and RhD blood groups and disease. No systematic population-based studies elucidating associations between a large number of disease categories and blood group have been conducted. Methods: Using SCANDAT3-S, a comprehensive nationwide blood donation-transfusion database, we modeled outcomes for 1217 disease categories including 70 million person-years of follow-up, accruing from 5.1 million individuals. Results: We discovered 49 and 1 associations between a disease and ABO and RhD blood groups, respectively, after adjustment for multiple testing. We identified new associations such as a decreased risk of kidney stones and blood group B as compared to blood group O. We also expanded previous knowledge on other associations such as pregnancy-induced hypertension and blood groups A and AB as compared to blood group O and RhD positive as compared to negative. Conclusions: Our findings generate strong further support for previously known associations, but also indicate new interesting relations.