Effect of coffee intake on hip fracture: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Several observational studies suggest an association between coffee intake and hip fracture risk. However, the results among them are inconsistent. We aimed to evaluate the association between coffee consumption and risk of hip fracture by performing a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched through July 2014 to identify studies that met pre-stated inclusion criterion and reference lists of retrieved articles were reviewed. Information on the characteristics of the included study, risk estimates, and control for possible confounding factors were extracted independently by two authors. A random effects model of meta-analysis was used to calculate the pooled risk estimate. Ten prospective cohort studies involving 5408 patients with hip fracture and 205,930 participants were included in this systematic review. Compared with individuals who did not or seldom drink coffee, the pooled relative risks of hip fracture was 1.13 (95% confidence interval: 0.86 to 1.48) for individuals with the highest coffee consumption. Exception of any single study did not materially alter the combined risk estimate. Visual inspection of funnel plot and Begg's and Egger's tests did not indicate evidence of publication bias. In summary, integrated evidence from prospective cohort studies does not suggest a statistically significant association between coffee consumption and risk of hip fracture in developed countries.