by John Otrompke
A study in nearly half a million
participants found that coffee drinking is associated with a
significantly-reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality and stroke, according to
an e-poster presented at this year’s on-line meeting of the European Society of
Cardiology.
Researchers
found that cardiovascular mortality was reduced by 17% in those who drank up to
three cups of coffee per day compared to non-coffee-drinkers, according to the
e-poster, “Light-to-moderate coffee drinking associated with health benefits.”
(The p value was 0.006).
“To our knowledge, this was the largest study to systematically assess the cardiovascular effects of regular coffee consumption in a population without diagnosed heart disease,” said study author Dr. Judit Simon, of the Heart and Vascular Centre at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary.
Researchers examined data from 468,629 participants in the UK Biobank and found a 12% lower risk of all-cause death (p<0.001), and a 21% lower risk of incident stroke (p=0.037), with a median follow-up of 11 years. The average age of participants was 56.2 years and 55.8% of the participants were women.
“The study excluded those with more
severe heart disease like myocardial infarction, stroke, and atrial
fibrillation, but those with hypertension and diabetes were included,” noted
Simon.
Of the UK Biobank population, 30,650
participants underwent an MRI. “In the first 30,000, we checked the volume and ejection
fraction, and found positive alterations in the heart structure. The amount the
heart pushes out is a healthy alteration,” explained Simon.
The researchers also conducted a sub-analysis evaluating differences associated with the type of coffee consumption, and found improvements in all three outcomes, that is, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, and all-cause mortality, among those who used ground coffee, she added.
My thanks to the European Society of Cardiology for credentialing me to attend the meeting.
