Presence and Severity of Acne May Correlate With ABO Blood Type

There is a correlation between acne severity and ABO blood group, according to study findings published in Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.

A researcher from Elazig Fethi Sekin City Hospital in Turkey recruited patients (n=380) with acne vulgaris and healthy control individuals (n=1000) between 2019 and 2020. Acne severity was assessed using Global Acne-Grading System (GAGS) and blood group was obtained from hospital records.

The individuals with mild (n=263) or severe (n=117) acne and control participants were imbalanced for gender and age, in which more women were in the acne groups (74.4%-79.5% vs 40.5%; P =.000) and those in the acne groups were younger (mean, 21.96-24.43 vs 27.22 years; P =.0001) compared with controls, respectively.

Among participants in the mild acne cohort, the most common blood group was type A (38.8%), followed by type O (32.3%), type B (16%), and type AB (12.9%). Among those in the severe group, 51.3% had type A, 29.0% had type O, 10.3% had type AB, and 9.04% had type B. In control participants, 40.4% had type A, 32.8% had type O, 19.3% had type B, and 7.5% had type AB.

Trends in blood type differed significantly between patients and controls (χ², 17.756; P =.007). Patients with severe acne had more type A blood than patients with mild acne; however, these differences were not statistically significant.

No significant differences were observed for Rh factor positivity, in which 87.5% to of participants 90.6% were Rh(+) and 9.4%-12.5% were Rh(-).

The limitations of this study include the cohort imbalances at baseline and the small sample sizes of patients with acne.

Study author concludes, “When compared to the control group, the incidence of severe acne was higher in individuals with type-A blood when compared to patients with mild acne, while the incidence of mild acne was higher in other blood types when compared to the control group and severe acne.”