Coffee intake and coronary heart disease

We examined the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) associated with coffee intake in 1040 male medical students followed for 28 to 44 years. During the follow-up, CHD developed in 111 men. The relative risks (95% confidence interval) associated with drinking 5 cups of coffee/d were 2.94 (1.27, 6.81) for baseline, 5.52 (1.31, 23.18) for average, and 1.95 (0.86, 4.40) for most recent intake after adjustment for baseline age, serum cholesterol levels, calendar time, and the time-dependent covariates number of cigarettes, body mass index, and incident hypertension and diabetes. Risks were elevated in both smokers and nonsmokers and were stronger for myocardial infarction. Most of the excess risk was associated with coffee drinking prior to 1975. The diagnosis of hypertension was associated with a subsequent reduction in coffee intake. Negative results in some studies may be due to the assessment of the coffee intake later in life or to differences in methods of coffee preparation between study populations or over calendar time.