ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Drinking coffee can raise public health problems, but the association between coffee and kidney disease is unknown. We studied whether coffee intake can affect the development of chronic kidney disease in the general population.

METHODS:

We analyzed 8717 subjects with normal renal function recruited from the KoGES cohort. Based on food frequency questionnaire, coffee consumption was categorized into five groups: 0/week, <1 cup/week, 1-6 cups/week, 1 cup/day, and ≥2 cups/day. The primary outcome was incident chronic kidney disease defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2.

RESULTS:

The mean age of study subjects was 52.0 (8.8) years and 47.8% were male. Among the subjects, 52.8% were daily coffee consumers. During a mean follow-up of 11.3 [5.9-11.5] years, 9.5% of participants developed chronic kidney disease. The incident chronic kidney disease occurred less in daily coffee consumers. Unadjusted HRs was significantly lower in daily coffee consumers. In multivariable Cox model even after adjustment of blood pressure, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and amount of daily intake for caffeine-containing foods such as tea and chocolate, coffee consumers with 1 cup/day (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.63-0.92) and ≥2 cups/day (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65-0.98) were associated with a lower risk of chronic kidney disease development than non-drinkers. Time-averaged and time-varying Cox models yielded similar results. The rates of decline in eGFR were lower in daily coffee consumers.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our findings suggest that daily coffee intake is associated with decreased risk of the development of CKD.