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Title: Increasing Daily Coffee Consumption Appears Associated with Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

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JAMA 2004;291:1213-1219.
03/10/2004 09:34:00 AM
By Joene Hendry

Increased coffee consumption appears to be associated with a decreasing risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to findings of a prospective study of Finnish men and women. "Because the Finnish population drinks more coffee than other populations, we had power to determine the risk of DM [diabetes mellitus] at high levels of coffee consumption," writes Jaakko Tuomilehto, MD, PhD, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues. The researchers used combined surveys conducted in 1982, 1987, and 1992 to determine coffee consumption among 6,974 men and 7,655 women, aged between 35 and 64 years and with no history of stroke, coronary heart disease, or diabetes at baseline. They found that 381 cases of diabetes mellitus occurred in this population over a mean follow up of 12 years by cross-referencing the unique personal identification numbers of the cohort with the National Hospital Discharge Register and the Drug Register of the National Social Insurance Institution. The researchers determined the hazard ratios (HR's) for diabetes mellitus according to the cups of coffee consumed per day and by sex after adjusting for age, study year, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, smoking, alcohol and tea consumption, as well as education, and occupational, commuting, and leisure-time physical activity levels. Among women who drank 0 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10 or more cups daily the HR's were 1.00, 0.71, 0.39, 0.39, and 0.21, respectively; while among men the corresponding HR's were 1.00, 0.73, 0.70, 0.67, and 0.45, respectively. This association was significant ([P for trend <.001) and remained when stratified by age younger and older than 50 years; by smokers and never smokers; by weight at healthy, overweight, and obese levels; by alcohol drinking or non-drinking; and by consumption of filtered or non-filtered coffee, in both sexes combined. "We found a strong and graded inverse relationship between coffee consumption and the risk of type 2 DM among Finnish men and women," the authors conclude. "The mechanisms or process by which coffee contents may exert their beneficial effects on DM are nevertheless unclear," they add.

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