Knowing our blood type may be beneficial for more reasons than we think. It can help assess our risk for certain health problems, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD). The risk of CVD varies by blood type, with non-O blood types appearing to be at greater risk.
A person’s blood type depends on the types of proteins, or antigens, found on the surface of the red blood cells and is usually defined using the ABO and RhD systems. The ABO system consists of four major blood types: A, B, AB, and O, each of which can be either RhD-positive or RhD-negative. Determining blood type is essential for safe blood transfusions and can be used to determine a person’s susceptibility to certain diseases.
The findings revealed that, even after considering other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, people with blood types A, B, and AB had a higher chance of developing coronary heart disease compared to those with blood type O. Specifically, the risk increased by 6 percent for blood type A, 15 percent for blood type B, and 23 percent for blood type AB. This pattern remained the same even when only looking at white participants, with blood types A, B, and AB having an 8 percent, 10 percent, and 20 percent increased risk of coronary heart disease, respectively, compared to blood type O.
The results showed that among patients with microalbuminuria, compared with people of the O blood group, patients of the non-O blood groups (A, B, and AB) had an 81 percent increased risk of ischemic heart.