BACKGROUND

There are no contemporary published data on the frequency of the ABO and Rhesus D (RhD) blood groups in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, particularly for the large Aboriginal population.

AIMS

To establish the frequencies of ABO and RhD blood groups in the NT Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in order to aid transfusion inventory management and clinical practice.

METHODS

Retrospective data were collected from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012. All patients with a blood group sample processed by the NT public hospital laboratories and a recorded ABO and RhD report were included. Results were analysed using Stata 14.

RESULTS

The Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations had significantly different ABO and RhD distributions (P < 0.001). For Aboriginal individuals, 955/1686 (56.6%) were group O and 669/1686 (39.7%) were group A. In non-Aboriginal individuals, 1201/2657 (45.2%) were group O and 986/2657 (37.1%) were group A. We found that 1646/1686 (97.6%) of Aboriginal individuals were RhD positive, compared with 2225/2657 (83.7%) of non-Aboriginal individuals. Only 62/1686 (3.7%) of Aboriginal individuals were group B or AB, compared with 470/2657 (17.7%) of non-Aboriginal individuals. In Aboriginal individuals we found that group O was more common than A in the 'Northern' NT, whereas there was similar distribution of the groups in 'Central Australia'.

CONCLUSIONS

We found a significant difference in ABO and RhD blood groups between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal individuals in the NT (P < 0.001). These findings will aid transfusion inventory management, allowing us to plan supply of blood products and reduce waste.