Coffee consumption and risk of chronic disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Germany study.

Background: Early studies suggested that coffee consumption may increase the risk of chronic disease. Objective: We investigated prospectively the association between coffee consumption and the risk of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes (T2D), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and cancer. Design: We used data from 42,659 participants in the European Pro-spective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-GenTiany study. Coffee consumption was assessed by self-administered food-frequency questionnaire at baseline, and data on medically verified incident chronic diseases were collected by active and passive follow-up procedures. HRs and 95% CIs were calculated with multivariate Cox regression models and compared by competing risk analysis. Results: During 8.9 y of follow-up, we observed 1432 cases of T2D, 394 of MI, 310 of stroke, and 1801 of cancer as first qualify-ing events. Caffeinated (HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.84, 1.05) or decaf-feinated (HR: 1.05; 95% CI: 0.84, 1.31) coffee consumption (>4 cups/d compared with < 1 cup/d; 1 cup was defined as 150 mL) was not associated with the overall risk of chronic disease. A lower risk of T2D was associated with caffeinated (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.94; P-trend 0.009) and decaffeinated (HR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.46, 1.06; P-trend: 0.043) coffee consumption (>4 cups/d compared with < 1 cup/d), but cardiovascular disease and cancer risk were not. The competing risk analysis showed no significant differences between the risk associations of individual diseases. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that coffee consumption does not increase the risk of chronic disease, but it may be linked to a lower risk of T2D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]