A person's blood type likely does not contribute to their risk of contracting COVID-19 or of developing a severe infection, according to a study published April 5 in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers from Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare analyzed the outcomes of 107,796 people who tested positive for COVID-19 between March 3 and Nov. 3, 2020, and who had their blood type documented in their EHR.
"We had read a few mostly smaller early studies that indicated patients with type A blood fared worse with COVID-19 and those with type O fared better," Jeffrey Anderson, MD, lead study author and cardiologist at Intermountain said in a news release sent to Becker's. "So, instead of studying a few hundred patients, we looked at more than 100,000 patients tested at Intermountain Healthcare facilities, and found no relationship between a person's blood type and their susceptibility to COVID-19 or whether they needed hospitalization or [intensive care unit] care."
Similar to other findings, their analysis instead found men were more likely to test positive and had an increased risk for severe disease, as well as non-white patients and older patients.
"All of these demographic factors are consistent with what we've seen around the world, which gives us confidence in our database and these results for blood type," Dr. Anderson said.
To view the full study, click here.