Coffee consumption, irrespective of its type, prevents chronic liver disease: Study
UK: Coffee is the most consumed and popular beverage around the world. Different types of coffee include decaffeinated, instant, and ground coffee. A recent study published in the journal BMC Public Health has shown all types of coffee to be protective against chronic liver disease (CLD).
"The findings of the study are significant given the increasing global prevalence of CLD and the coffee's potential in preventing CLD onset or progression." wrote the authors.
Chronic liver disease is a growing cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, particularly in countries with low to middle-income having limited treatment availability and high disease burden. Previous studies have shown coffee to be associated with lower CLD rates but not much is know about the effects of different coffee types which have varied chemical composition.
Against the above background, Oliver J. Kennedy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, and colleagues aimed to investigate associations of coffee consumption, including decaffeinated, instant and ground coffee, with chronic liver disease outcomes.
The researchers included a total of 494,585 UK Biobank participants with known coffee consumption and electronic linkage to death, hospital, and cancer records. The hazard ratio was estimated of incident CLD, incident CLD or steatosis, incident hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and death from CLD according to coffee consumption of any type as well as for decaffeinated, instant, and ground coffee individually.
Key findings of the study include:
· Among 384,818 coffee drinkers and 109,767 non-coffee drinkers, there were 3600 cases of CLD, 5439 cases of CLD or steatosis, 184 cases of HCC and 301 deaths from CLD during a median follow-up of 10.7 years.
· Compared to non-coffee drinkers, coffee drinkers had lower adjusted HRs of CLD (HR 0.79), CLD or steatosis (HR 0.80), death from CLD (HR 0.51) and HCC (HR 0.80).
· The associations for decaffeinated, instant and ground coffee individually were similar to all types combined.
"The finding that all types of coffee are protective against CLD is significant given the increasing incidence of CLD worldwide and the potential of coffee as an intervention to prevent CLD onset or progression," concluded the authors.
"Further work is now needed to replicate these findings using more robust methods, including Mendelian randomization with a more powerful set of genetic variants to estimate coffee consumption than available previously," they concluded. "Randomized trials should then investigate the efficacy of a coffee-based intervention in those at risk of CLD or its complications."
Reference:
The study titled, "All coffee types decrease the risk of adverse clinical outcomes in chronic liver disease: a UK Biobank study," is published in the journal BMC Public Health.
DOI: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10991-7
