Article Impact Level: HIGH Data Quality: STRONG Summary of European Heart Journal, ehae871. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871 Dr. Xuan Wang et al.
Points
- The study analyzed coffee drinking timing patterns concerning all-cause and cause-specific mortality, using data from over 42,000 adults in two extensive surveys (NHANES and Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study).
- Based on clustering analysis, two primary coffee-drinking timing patterns were identified: morning-type (36% of participants) and all-day-type (14% of participants).
- Morning-type coffee drinkers had significantly lower risks of all-cause mortality (HR: 0.84) and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality (HR: 0.69) compared to non-coffee drinkers, while the all-day-type pattern showed no similar benefits.
- Higher coffee intake was linked to a reduced risk of all-cause mortality in the morning-type pattern but not all-day-type, highlighting the importance of timing in coffee’s health effects (P-interaction = 0.031).
- Morning coffee consumption is more strongly associated with reduced mortality risks, emphasizing the role of timing and quantity in evaluating coffee’s health benefits.
Summary
This observational study aimed to explore patterns in coffee drinking timing and assess their relationship with all-cause and cause-specific mortality. The study analyzed data from 40,725 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2018 and 1,463 adults from the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study, both of which provided comprehensive dietary data. Two primary patterns of coffee drinking timing were identified: morning-type (36% of participants) and all-day-type (14% of participants). Clustering analysis was used to determine these patterns, and their association with mortality was examined over a median follow-up period of 9.8 years.
The results revealed that participants following the morning-type coffee drinking pattern had a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.74–0.95) and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-specific mortality (HR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.55–0.87) compared to non-coffee drinkers. These associations remained after adjusting for factors such as coffee intake, sleep hours, and other confounders. In contrast, the all-day-type pattern did not show a similar protective effect. The study also found that coffee drinking timing modified the relationship between coffee intake amounts and mortality, with higher coffee intake significantly linked to a lower risk of all-cause mortality in the morning-type pattern but not in the all-day-type pattern (P-interaction = 0.031).
In conclusion, the findings suggest that the timing of coffee consumption plays a role in mortality risk. Drinking coffee in the morning is more strongly associated with lower risks of all-cause and CVD-specific mortality than drinking coffee later in the day. These insights emphasize the importance of considering the quantity and timing of coffee intake when assessing its health implications.
Link to the article: https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871/7928425
References Wang, X., Ma, H., Sun, Q., Li, J., Heianza, Y., Van Dam, R. M., Hu, F. B., Rimm, E., Manson, J. E., & Qi, L. (2025). Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults. European Heart Journal, ehae871. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871
