ABSTRACT

Purpose:

To study the association between coffee and alcoholic beverage consumption and alcoholic liver disease mortality.

Methods:

In total, 219,279 men and women aged 30 – 67 years attended cardiovascular screening in Norway from 1994 to 2003. Linkage to the Cause of Death Registry identified 93 deaths from alcoholic liver disease. Coffee consumption was categorized into four levels: 0, 1-4, 5-8, and greater than or equal to 9 cups/d and alcohol consumption as 0, greater than 0 to less than 1.0, 1.0 to less than 2.0, and greater than or equal to 2.0 units/d, for beer, wine, liquor, and total alcohol consumption.

Results:

The hazard ratios per one category of consumption were 2.06 (95% confidence interval 1.62 – 2.61), 0.68 (0.46 – 1.00), and 2.54 (1.92 – 3.36) for beer, wine, and liquor, respectively. Stratification at 5 cups/d (the mean) revealed a stronger association between alcohol consumption and alcoholic liver disease at less than 5 versus 5 or more cups/d. With less than 5 cups/d, 0 alcohol units/d as reference, the hazard ratio reached to 25.5 (9.2 – 70.5) for greater than or equal to 2 units/d, whereas with greater than or equal to 5 cups/d, it reached 5.8 (1.9 – 17.9) for greater than or equal to 2 units/d. A test for interaction was significant (P = .01).

Conclusions:

Coffee and wine consumption were inversely associated with alcoholic liver disease death. Total alcohol consumption was adversely associated with alcoholic liver disease mortality and the strength of the association varied with the level of coffee consumption.