Effect of blood group on functional hearing status in young adults

Abstract

Objectives: An understanding of blood group plays an important role in the field of medicine, in areas such as blood transfusion and organ transplantation. There are an increasing number of research studies examining the relationship between ABO blood group and disease. Not much is known about the relationship between blood group and hearing. However, several studies have indicated there is a relationship between noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and blood group. Two previous studies, which were conducted with female and male participants, respectively, representing each of the four blood groups in the ABO blood group system, further suggested that different blood groups may be associated with varied otoacoustic emission (OAE) characteristics, including the prevalence of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) and the amplitudes of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in both genders. Following on from these previous studies, the present research project investigated the possible effect of blood group on pure tone hearing thresholds and speech intelligibility. Method: Sixty clinically normal-hearing, native Cantonese speaking, females and males aged between 18 and 26 years—with equal numbers of participants in each of the ABO blood groups—were recruited by purposive sampling. The present study measured participant pure tone thresholds across standard audiometric frequencies and obtained speech discrimination scores in quiet and in noise, as well as tympanometric data related to external and middle ear characteristics. Results: The blood group O participants had significantly lower speech discrimination scores in noise than participants with blood group A and AB. No significant difference was noted among blood groups for outer or middle ear characteristics and pure tone thresholds. A trend of poorer speech perception scores in quiet in blood group O, although not statistically significant, was observed compared with non-O blood groups. Conclusions: The results were consistent with previous findings of reduced auditory status in female and male blood group O individuals. Results support the hypothesis that blood group O individuals may be more susceptible to cochlear disorder, such as NIHL. Further investigation on the potential link between ABO blood group and auditory status is needed. The possible effects of ABO blood group on other aspects of audition, such as high frequency sensitivity and central auditory processing, should be considered.