A cup of freshly brewed coffee kickstarts most people’s days. Coffee is one of the most consumed beverage in the world and Australia ranks 42nd among the top coffee-consumption nations, with 3kg per capita, while the highest ranking nation Finland consumes an average of 2.64 cups a day.
Previous studies have suggested that drinking too much coffee can have adverse effects on all-cause mortality.
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While there have been other studies which have investigated the association between coffee consumption and mortality, this has not been tested in a Mediterranean country where regular and moderate consumption of coffee is widespread.
An analysis was conducted which included 19,896 participants of the SUN Project (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) – a long-term prospective cohort study in more than 22 500 Spanish university graduates which started in 1999.
The average age of the participants at enrolment was 37.7 years. The participants completed a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to collect information on coffee consumption, lifestyle and sociodemographic individualities, anthropometric measurements, and previous health conditions.
Participants were followed up for an average of 10 years. Information about their mortality was obtained through study participants and their families, postal authorities, and the National Death Index.
337 participants died during the 10-year period. The researchers found that participants who consumed at least four cups of coffee per day had a 64 per cent lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who never or almost never consumed coffee.
The researchers observed a further 22 per cent lower risk of all-cause mortality for each two additional cups of coffee consumed per day.
The researchers examined the role of age, Mediterranean diet or sex and their influence on the association between baseline coffee consumption and mortality.
They observed a significant link between age and coffee consumption and found that those who were at least 45 years old and consumed two additional cups of coffee per day had a 30 per cent lower risk of mortality during the follow-up. This association was not significant amongst younger participants.
The studies finds that coffee consumption has an inverse relationship with people aged 45 years and over which may be due to the protective effects of coffee amongst older participants.
Seems like drinking more than 4 cups of coffee a day is going to make you live longer, especially if you’re 45 years and older.
Source: European Society of Cardiology
