Can Coffee Consumption Negate Harmful Effects of Sitting Too Much? BMC Study Unveils Association - Video

A recent study, published in BMC Public Health, has unveiled an association between a sedentary lifestyle and coffee consumption. According to the authors, sedentary behavior for more than 6 hours/day along with no coffee consumption is strongly related to increased risk of mortality from all cause and cardiovascular diseases.

Sitting for longer hours is independently linked to harmful health outcomes, including cancerous, metabolic, and cardiovascular disease. On the contrary, coffee consumption is believed to have a protective effect on all cause and cardiovascular disease mortality because of its antioxidant qualities.

In the current prospective cohort study, researchers the combined effect of daily sedentary time and coffee consumption on death from all causes and cardiovascular diseases.

Data of 10639 participants was collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys conducted from 2007 to 2018. Personal interviews, physical examination and lab tests were conducted for each participant. Global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) was used to measure total sitting time per day. On the basis of the questionnaire, 4 groups were divided: 0-4h, 4-6h, 6-8h, more than 8h per day. Based on total reported coffee intake, coffee consumers were divided into no coffee intake, 0.23–326 g/day, 326–540 g/day, and ≥ 540 g/day.

The primary study outcomes were cardiovascular disease and all-cause death, established using ICD-10 numbers. Sociodemographic variables included sex, ethnicity, race, educational attainment, marital status, poverty income ratio, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference. Lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol consumption and Healthy eating index 2015 were also assessed. Other relevant factors like hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cancer diagnosis, history of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes were also noted.

Over a 13-year follow-up, the researchers found, 945 fatalities occurred among research participants, with 284 of these being due to cardiovascular diseases.

The authors concluded that all-cause mortality was reduced in the highest quintile of coffee intake and any amount of coffee intake was linked to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality.

The combined analysis of this study identified that the association of sedentary lifestyle with increased mortality was only observed among adults with no coffee consumption but not among those who had coffee intake.

Reference: Zhou, H., Nie, J., Cao, Y. et al. Association of daily sitting time and coffee consumption with the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality among US adults. BMC Public Health 24, 1069 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18515-9