title: Does Hakka ethnic group have higher incidence of thalassemia traits in Taiwanese population?
abstract: The purpose of this survey is to find out whether Hakka group has higher incidence of thalassemia traits in our population. A total of 1,115 healthy employees from a company were screened by complete blood count (CBC) with indices. Those subjects with mean corpuscular volume (MCV) less than 80 fl were further evaluated by hemoglobin electrophoresis and modified hemoglobin H (Hb H) inclusion staining to confirm the diagnosis of beta- and alpha-thalassemia traits, respectively. We evaluated and compared the crude occurrence rates of thalassemia traits in Hakka, non-Hakka, and Taiwanese. Subjects with one or both Hakka parents had higher crude incidence of alpha-thalassemia traits than other groups of subjects, but this phenomenon wasn't found in beta-thalassemia traits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D017085:alpha-Thalassemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*