Background:
Moderate coffee consumption has been consistently associated with a lower risk of diabetes, a major precursor to chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the association between coffee and CKD has not been fully established.
Hypothesis:
We hypothesized that coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of incident CKD after adjustment for major covariates among adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.
Methods:
We conducted a prospective analysis of 14,209 participants aged 45-64 years from the ARIC study. Coffee consumption (cups/day) was assessed at visit 1 (1987-89) and visit 3 (1993-95) using food frequency questionnaires. Our primary outcome was incident CKD defined as eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m
2
accompanied by ≥25% eGFR decline, CKD-related hospitalization or death, or end-stage renal disease.
Results:
There were 3,845 cases of incident CKD over a median of 24 years of follow-up. Men, whites, current smokers, and participants without comorbidities were more likely to consume higher amounts of coffee per day. After adjustment for demographic, clinical, and dietary factors, higher categories of coffee consumption were associated with lower risk of incident CKD (
Table
). Compared to participants who never consumed coffee, participants who consumed any amount of coffee had an 11% lower risk of CKD (HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.82-0.96; p for trend<0.001). In the continuous analysis, for each additional cup of coffee consumed per day, the risk of incident CKD was lower by 3% (HR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95-0.99, p<0.001). Results were consistent across the three progressively adjusted models and in a sensitivity analysis using a secondary definition of CKD. Stratification of analyses by smoking status suggested an inverse association among never smokers and former smokers.
Conclusions:
Coffee consumption was inversely associated with incident CKD after adjusting for covariates. Coffee consumption may not adversely affect kidney disease risk and may instead be protective.
Coffee Consumption and Incident Kidney Disease: Results From the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study