Coffee consumption and risk of stroke in women

Coffee consumption has been inconsistently associated with stroke incidence and mortality in previous studies. We investigated the association between coffee consumption and stroke incidence in the Swedish Mammography Cohort.

We prospectively followed of 34,670 women without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline in 1997. Coffee consumption was assessed in 1997 using a self-administered questionnaire. Incident stroke cases were ascertained from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry.

During a mean follow-up of 10.4 years, we ascertained 1680 stroke events, including 1310 cerebral infarctions, 154 intracerebral hemorrhages, 79 subarachnoid hemorrhages, and 137 unspecified strokes. After adjustment for other risk factors, coffee consumption was associated with a statistically significant lower risk of total stroke, cerebral infarction, and subarachnoid hemorrhage but not intracerebral hemorrhage. The multivariable relative risks of total stroke across categories of coffee consumption (<1 cup/day, 1 to 2 cups/day, 3 to 4 cups/day, and ≥5 cups/day) were 1.00, 0.78 (95% CI, 0.66 to 0.91), 0.75 (95% CI, 0.64 to 0.88), and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.63 to 0.92, respectively; P for trend=0.02). The association between coffee consumption and cerebral infarction was not modified by smoking status, body mass index, history of diabetes or hypertension, or alcohol consumption.

These findings suggest that low or no coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of stroke in women.