Effect of Coffee Consumption on Renal Outcome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Studies

Drinking coffee is one of the most common daily habits, especially in the developed world. Along with caffeine, coffee has various ingredients that have been suggested to have beneficial effects, including antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anticarcinogenic, antithrombotic and antifibrotic effects. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we investigated the relationship between coffee intake and chronic kidney disease (CKD) related outcomes.

Literature search was performed through PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Embase (Elsevier), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Wiley) from 1960 to February 2020. Incidence of CKD, the progression of CKD, and CKD-associated mortality have been evaluated in relation to coffee consumption and the amount of consumption. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used for quality assessment of included studies.

12 studies were included in the analysis (7 prospective, 5 cross-sectional) involving 505,841 subjects. 7 studies investigated the relationship between coffee consumption and incident CKD and showed that coffee consumption was associated with a significant decrease in the risk for incident CKD outcome (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.97, P = .01) with a greater decrease in individuals taking ≥2 cups/day compared to those who drank ≤1 cup/day. There was a significantly lower risk of incident end stage kidney disease (ESKD) in coffee users (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.94, P = .005). Coffee consumption was also associated with a lower risk of albuminuria (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.97, P = .02). Overall, the risk of death related to CKD was lower in coffee users (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.96, P = .02).

Coffee intake was dose-dependently associated with lower incident CKD, ESKD, and albuminuria.