Having COVID-19 increases the risk of heart attack or stroke at the same rate as developing heart disease, according to a new study published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

The new study, led by researchers at the University of Southern California, UCLA and the Cleveland Clinic, included 10,005 people with COVID-19 and 217,730 people who were not infected between February 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.

The study began when COVID-19 vaccines were not widely available. Because only a small number of Americans had received a COVID-19 vaccine as of late December 2020, the study only included those who had not been vaccinated.

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The researchers said they looked for links between the severity of COVID-19 infections and major cardiac events over a period of about three years. What they found is that hospitalization caused by COVID-19 puts people at similar, if not greater, risk for future strokes, heart attacks and other problems than someone with heart disease.

The study also noted that people with non-O blood type faced a particularly higher risk of cardiac events.

“We’re trying to rule out other alternative explanations, but it seems like there’s actually something biological going on with these specific blood types,” said Hooman Allayee, lead author of the study and a professor at USC.

The new data could help inform doctors when determining whether a person is at higher risk of a heart attack.

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“This study highlights that we should consider history of COVID-19 infection when formulating cardiovascular disease prevention plans and goals,” said co-senior author Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic.