ABSTRACT
Objectives:
To assess the relationship between consumption of largely consumed beverages (coffee, tea, alcohol, and soft drinks) and the risk of RA.
Methods:
The E3N Study (Étude Épidémiologique auprès des femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Éducation Nationale) is a French prospective cohort including 98 995 women since 1990. Food and beverage consumption was assessed using a validated food-frequency questionnaire. Hazard ratios (HR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for incident RA were estimated by Cox proportional hazards model.
Results:
Among 62 631 women, 481 incident RA cases were identified. Consumptions of tea, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks were not associated with RA risk. We observed a linear association between coffee consumption and RA risk (≥4 cups/day vs ≤1cup/day, HR = 1.24; 95% CI [0.94; 1.64], ptrend = 0.04), and a higher risk of RA with artificially-sweetened soft-drinks consumption (consumers vs not, HR = 1.66; 95% CI [1.12; 2.45]), particularly in never-smokers. Among ever-smokers, moderate liquor intake was associated with a reduced risk of RA (1-3 glasses/week vs non-consumers, HR = 0.63; 95% CI [0.43; 0.91]) and moderate wine consumption with a reduced risk of seropositive RA.
Conclusion:
In a large cohort of women, tea, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks consumption was not associated with RA risk, whereas consumptions of coffee (especially caffeinated coffee), and artificially-sweetened soft drinks were associated with higher RA risk, particularly among never-smokers. If further confirmed, these results could lead to novel mechanistic hypotheses and to simple prevention measures.