Awareness of ABO and Rh Negative Blood Groups in Patient Population of Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals

摘要

ABO blood group system is the most important blood group system followed by Rh blood group system. At present, the ABO bloodgroup system consists of two antigens namely A and B that determine ones blood group while Rh blood group system consists of 50defined blood-group antigens, among which the five antigens D, C, c, E, and e are the most important. The commonly used terms Rhfactor, Rh positive and Rh negative refer to the D antigen only. It has remained of primary importance in obstetrics, being the maincause of hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). HDN can occur only in Rh-negative mothers having Rh-negative baby. Injectinganti-D serum during each child’s birth or abortion can prevent this complication. So the aim To find out the awareness of ABO andRh blood groups and its complications among the patient population of Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals. A questionnairebased study conducted to determine the awareness of ABO and Rh blood group systems. When questioned about ABO bloodgroups, 54% had a good knowledge about blood groups. 54%, 38% had an incomplete idea but didn’t deem completely unaware,however, 8% of the subjects were completely unaware of different blood groups. However, only 6% were aware of the Rhesusfactor. This study showed higher frequency of subjects who were unaware about blood group antigens and complications related toRh –ve blood group. The subjects however were responsive to the explanation given to them and they understood of theimportance of being aware of their blood groups. All subjects were made aware of blood grouping systems at the end of the surveyirrespective of how much knowledge they had before the survey.