ABSTRACT:

Background:

‍Considerable controversy exists regarding the association between coffee consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. A meta-analysis was performed to assess  the dose-response relationship of long-term coffee consumption with CVD risk.

Methods and Results:

‍Pubmed and EMBASE were searched for prospective cohort studies of  the relationship between coffee consumption and CVD risk, which included coronary heart  disease, stroke, heart failure, and CVD mortality. Thirty-six studies were included with  1,279,804 participants and 36,352 CVD cases. A non-linear relationship of coffee consumption  with CVD risk was identified (P for heterogeneity = 0.09, P for trend < 0.001, P for non-linearity  < 0.001). Compared with the lowest category of coffee consumption (median: 0 cups/d), the  relative risk of CVD was 0.95 (95% CI, 0.87 to 1.03) for the highest (median: 5 cups/d) category,  0.85 (0.80 to 0.90) for the second highest (median: 3.5 cups/d), and 0.89 (0.84 to 0.94) for the  third highest category (median: 1.5 cups/d). Looking at separate outcomes, coffee consumption  was non-linearly associated with both CHD (P for heterogeneity = 0.001, P for trend < 0.001, P  for non-linearity < 0.001) and stroke risks (P for heterogeneity = 0.07, P for trend < 0.001, P for  non-linearity< 0.001) (P for trend differences > 0.05).

Conclusions:

‍A non-linear association between coffee consumption with CVD risk was  observed in this meta-analysis. Moderate coffee consumption was inversely significantly  associated with CVD risk, with the lowest CVD risk at 3 to 5 cups/d, and heavy coffee consumption was not associated with elevated CVD risk.