Drinking Coffee Could Lower Mortality Risk

Higher levels of coffee consumption is associated with lower mortality risk, according to the results of a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

For their analysis, the researchers included 19,896 participants from the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Project, a long-term prospective cohort study of over 22,5000 Spanish university graduates. All participants completed a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire which included information on lifestyle and sociodemographic characteristics, as well as medical history.
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Over an average follow-up of 10 years, 337 participants died. Those participants that consumed at least 4 cups of coffee each day had a 64% lower risk of all-cause mortality than participants who never or almost never consumed coffee, and there was a 22% lower risk of all-cause mortality for each 2 additional cups of coffee per day.

A significant interaction was observed between coffee consumption and age, and, in participants who were at least 45 years old, 2 additional cups of coffee per day was associated with a 30% reduction in mortality risk during follow-up.

“In the SUN project we found an inverse association between drinking coffee and the risk of all-cause mortality, particularly in people aged 45 years and above. This may be due to a stronger protective association among older participants,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Higher coffee consumption associated with lower risk of death [press release]. Barelona, Spain. August 27, 2017. https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/higher-coffee-consumption-associated-with-lower-risk-of-death#.