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| A new, preliminary study asks whether blood type might help predict COVID-19 risk. |
A new, preliminary study has found correlations between blood type and the likelihood of being hospitalized with COVID-19. According to the authors, people with type A blood might be more at risk than those with other blood types, while those with O blood types had a significantly lower risk, Newsweek reported.
Researchers from the Southern University of Science and Technology, in Shenzhen, China — in collaboration with colleagues from other Chinese institutions — have recently conducted a study assessing the potential relationship between blood type and hospitalization due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Their study is preliminary and has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, which means that other experts have not yet had a chance to assess the researchers’ methodology and findings.
However, they have made their study paper available online in preprint form.
The findings appear on the website medRxiv, where health researchers publish studies before they undergo the peer review process required by journals.
The researchers said blood type-related differences in COVID-19 risk may be due to certain antibodies in the blood, but further studies are needed to confirm this, Newsweek reported.
The finding that blood type may affect COVID-19 risk could be important for healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients, because those with A blood types" "might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection."
Also, people with A blood types might require "more vigilant surveillance and aggressive treatment," and identifying a person's blood type as a routine part of treating COVID-19 and other coronavirus infections might be helpful, according to the researchers, Newsweek reported.
The study was limited because of its small size and it didn't offer an explanation for its findings, Gao Yingdai, a researcher from the State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology in Tianjin, told the South China Morning Post.
The study "may be helpful to medical professionals, but ordinary citizens should not take the statistics too seriously," said Gao,who did not work on the study, Newsweek reported.
"If you are type A, there is no need to panic. It does not mean you will be infected 100 percent," she said, addingm "If you are type O, it does not mean you are absolutely safe, either. You still need to wash your hands and follow the guidelines issued by authorities."
More Details:
Is blood group A hit the hardest?
The researchers looked at blood group distribution among 2,173 individuals admitted to hospitals with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The people each received care at one of three hospitals in Wuhan, China, or Shenzhen.
The team then compared the patients’ blood group distribution to that of a group representative of the general population — totaling 3,694 people — in Wuhan.
The researchers found that the proportion of people with blood type A was significantly higher among the group hospitalized with COVID-19 than among the general population.
They also found that the proportion of people with blood type O was significantly lower among the group with COVID-19 than among the general population.
Based on these findings, co-first study author Jiao Zhao and colleagues report that “People with blood group A have a significantly higher risk for acquiring COVID-19, compared with non-A blood groups, whereas blood group O has a significantly lower risk for the infection, compared with non-O blood groups.”
It is important to stress, however, that the researchers refer to the risk of needing hospitalization because of COVID-19, rather than the risk of contracting the virus that can lead to the disease.
This is because the team only looked at data from individuals whose symptoms were severe enough to require hospitalization, not those with mild symptoms that responded to home care.
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