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Caffè

Continua la saga del caffè. Questa volta a cimentarsi con il problema è un gruppo di ricercatori americani del National Cancer Institute che hanno eseguito uno studio poderoso su oltre 400.000 soggetti di ambo i sessi seguiti dal 1995 al 2008. Le conclusioni sono che la mortalità è minore in coloro che bevono regolarmente caffè, anche del 10% per gli uomini e del 15% per le donne se consumano più di 6 tazze di caffè al giorno, rispetto a coloro che non bevono caffè. E' risultata un'associazione inversa tra consumo di caffè e mortalità per varie cause, incluse le malattie cardiovascolari, malattie respiratorie, ictus cerebrale e diabete, ma non il cancro. Sorprendente è la riduzione di mortalità per malattie infettive, che francamente risulta piuttosto ostica da spiegare. Difficile districarsi tra i risultati contraddittori dei vari studi. Molti, tra cui questo, sostengono per il caffè un ruolo protettivo, altri sostengono un parere nettamente contrario, altri ancora sostengono che il caffè non abbia alcun effetto rimarchevole sulla salute.

Association of coffee drinking with total and cause-specific mortality

Freedman ND, Park Y, Abnet CC, Hollenbeck AR, Sinha R

N Engl J Med 2012;366:1891-904

BACKGROUND: Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages, but the association between coffee consumption and the risk of death remains unclear.

METHODS: We examined the association of coffee drinking with subsequent total and cause-specific mortality among 229,119 men and 173,141 women in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study who were 50 to 71 years of age at baseline. Participants with cancer, heart disease, and stroke were excluded. Coffee consumption was assessed once at baseline.

RESULTS: During 5,148,760 person-years of follow-up between 1995 and 2008, a total of 33,731 men and 18,784 women died. In age-adjusted models, the risk of death was increased among coffee drinkers. However, coffee drinkers were also more likely to smoke, and, after adjustment for tobacco-smoking status and other potential confounders, there was a significant inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality. Adjusted hazard ratios for death among men who drank coffee as compared with those who did not were as follows: 0.99 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.95 to 1.04) for drinking less than 1 cup per day, 0.94 (95% CI, 0.90 to 0.99) for 1 cup, 0.90 (95% CI, 0.86 to 0.93) for 2 or 3 cups, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84 to 0.93) for 4 or 5 cups, and 0.90 (95% CI, 0.85 to 0.96) for 6 or more cups of coffee per day (P<0.001 for trend); the respective hazard ratios among women were 1.01 (95% CI, 0.96 to 1.07), 0.95 (95% CI, 0.90 to 1.01), 0.87 (95% CI, 0.83 to 0.92), 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79 to 0.90), and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.78 to 0.93) (P<0.001 for trend). Inverse associations were observed for deaths due to heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections, but not for deaths due to cancer. Results were similar in subgroups, including persons who had never smoked and persons who reported very good to excellent health at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective study, coffee consumption was inversely associated with total and cause-specific mortality. Whether this was a causal or associational finding cannot be determined from our data. (Funded by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.

N Engl J Med 2012;366:1891-904