[Closed] I'm 23% more likely to develop heart disease

Darn, how long do you have, better get cycling more then!

Hmmm, one does wonder why they only mention relative risk increase, rather than mentioning the absolute risk statistics 😉

What Z11 said. Journalist don't know the difference between percentage point changes and percentage changes - just look at how they report inflation numbers.

well, if the absolute risk of heart disease is about 20% for all blood types then the most it will be for AB is 24.6%. Given that 44% have blood type O and 4% have blood type AB then it's going to be about 24%.
Maybe someone else can do the maths.
One in three people die of heart disease/ heart attacks/ heart failure/ stroke anyway so I wouldn't worry too much.
Better that than the big C.

Hora you're far more at risk of getting lynched mid ride than you are of developing heart disease. And each time you change your mind about what bike you're riding that risk increases exponentially.

Curiouser and curiouser, even the official press release didn't mention the absolute risk rates

http://newsroom.heart.org/pr/aha/blood-type-may-influence-heart-237373.aspx?link_page_rss=237373

Almost as if there was a reason to amplify or scaremonger...

fortunately the abstract is [b]bound[/b] to show the absolute rather than just relative figures...

http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/early/2012/08/14/ATVBAHA.112.248757.abstract

nope, relative figures again!

but there is some light in the tunnel, the abstract says that 89,000 middle-ish aged people were monitored in two studies, giving about 2 million person/years of data, with about 4000 developing heart disease,

so rough numbers thats about 20 years each of monitoring on average, with a risk of about 1 in 25, or 4%, of developing the disease in the 20 year period... so your chance of developing heart disease in middle age on the figures is about 3% for blood group O, rising to 4% if you're blood group AB.

maybe not such a good headline...

what is middle-ish aged? 40?

Nothing about this article depresses me. Finding out I'm the same blood type as hora has made me all but want to throw in the towel.

are you a donor? one day you could save his life.

Even worse...one day, I could get some of his...

Oh Jesus...

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what is middle-ish aged? 40?

the female study (majority) were between 30 and 55 with no more figures given, the male study between 40 and 75 - the rate of heart disease n the blokes was quite a bit higher, (a bot over double) but they were clearly older on average.

My dad was AB+, he died when I was 13, aged 44, from a heart attack. I'm O+, and 57...

DD I do donate as well....

CZ, Wow that was young! 14 and 49 for me...and I thought mine was too young to go like that. I don't know what bloodt type he was.

My dad was AB+,
I'm O+

Erm, Sorry, I don't really know how to put this discreetly, but are you sure about that...

Erm, Sorry, I don't really know how to put this discreetly, but are you sure about that...

Hmmm thats a point. I thought you got your bloodtype/mix from your parents (Father)?

Quick google- you should be A or B but not O.

Z11 - it's odd that they've not specified absolute risk in black and white, but given they're talking about incidence of heart disease over a 20 year period, it's less of a wrong-un than talking about a 23% increase in incidence of a vanishingly rare condition.

Across the population of people with AB, an extra 1 in every 100 is a fair number of individuals, rather than just a handful if it was a 1 in 100 with a rare tumour.

The story should have taken the trouble to spell it out in absolute terms though.

Lots of interesting follow-up work on the reasons why O-type people are blessed with better clotting etc.

Great thread 😆