No association of bleeding time and clotting time with four ABO blood groups in healthy young adults: An observational study

Background: The bleeding time, clotting time, and ABO blood groups are important in many clinical conditions such as thrombosis, epistaxis, or cardiac surgery. Although there are many reports on the association of bleeding time and clotting time among the ABO blood groups, the results found conflicting. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to study the association of bleeding time and clotting time among the four ABO blood groups in healthy adults. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among the undergraduate medical students belonging to age group of 18–22 years. The bleeding time was examined by Duke’s method using Whatman filter paper and clotting time was determined by capillary tube method. ABO blood grouping was done in all the students. The possible association of bleeding time and clotting time with the ABO blood groups was analyzed by Chi-square test. Results: Two hundred twenty-seven healthy students were recruited in this study with 59.9% being males. Blood groups revealed, 47.58% (108/227), 27.75% (63/227), 18.06% (41/227), and 6.6% (15/227) students with blood group “O,” “B,” “A,” and “AB,” respectively. Both bleeding time (χ2 = 1.401; P = 0.7769) and clotting time (χ2 = 2.21; P = 0.537) were comparable in all the four blood groups. Although bleeding time was found to be high in female students compared to males, it did not reach statistically significant (χ2 = 1.725; P = 0.1891). For clotting time, both genders have equal number of students (χ2 = 7.08; P = 0.993). Conclusion: Neither bleeding time nor clotting time in the study, participants were associated with ABO blood groups. Further there was no difference in both bleeding time and clotting time among males and females students.