Coffee’s Preventive Benefits for CVD, Heart Disease on Display in Study Pair

A pair of studies being presented at ACC.22, the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, show the safety and effectiveness of regular coffee consumption toward several detrimental effects of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and heart disease, as well as mortality. Both used data from the UK Biobank.

The first study investigated links between incident arrhythmia, CVD (comprising coronary heart disease [CHD], cardiac failure [CCF], and stroke), and mortality and habitual coffee consumption, analyzing outcomes according to 6 categories: 0, less than 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and more than 5 cups per day.¹ Data were self-reported on participant questionnaires for 382,535 individuals without known heart disease, most of whom were female (52%); the mean (SD) age was 57 (13) years. Follow-up was 10 years.

The lowest risks differed according to total cups per day. For all-cause mortality and risks of CVD, CHD, and CCF, the lowest risk was seen when 2 to 3 cups were drunk on a daily basis, for reduced HRs of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.83-0.90), 0.91 (95% CI, 0.88-0.94), 0.90 (95% CI, 0.87-0.93), and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.81-0.90), respectively. Stroke risk was lowest (HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.75-0.96) with less than 1 daily cup, and cardiovascular mortality risk was lowest (HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.75-0.93) at the 1 cup/day mark.

With regular coffee consumption linked to reduced risks of both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, CVD, and incident arrhythmia, the investigators concluded that a healthy diet can include the beverage on a daily basis.

In the second study, which also had a 10-year follow-up and looked at outcomes in connection to 0, less than 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and more than 5 cups of coffee per day, participants (n = 34,279) had various forms of CVD at baseline.² CVD, too, was a composite of CHD, CCF, and stroke.

According to a statement on the findings, no elevated risk of heart rhythm irregularities was seen with any amount of coffee consumption and survival was shown to be particularly improved when drinking 2 to 3 cups/day (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.86-0.99).

A lower overall mortality risk was seen in the 70.3% of participants who had arrhythmia at baseline. Subdividing this outcome by total cups consumed, consuming 1 cup per day was associated with the greatest reduced risk of mortality from arrhythmia (15%; HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.78-0.94) and from atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter (18%; HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.73-0.93) in particular.

The authors noted that they took up their studies because of the large study populations available in the UK Biobank compared with earlier studies on coffee intake and cardiovascular outcomes¹ and because previous studies have not focused their investigations on how coffee make have an impact on populations with CVD or prevalent arrhythmia.²

Additional studies in this area are needed due to the self-reported nature of the data used, that the researchers could not control for dietary influences, and because the participants were mostly White.

Reference

1. Chieng D, Canovas R, Segan L, et al. Effects of habitual coffee consumption on incident cardiovascular disease, arrhythmia, and mortality: findings from UK Biobank. Presented at: ACC.22; April 2-4; Washington, DC.

2. Kistler P, Chieng D, Canovas R, et al. regular coffee intake is associated with improved mortality in prevalent cardiovascular disease. Presented at: ACC.22; April 2-4; Washington, DC.