Will drinking coffee extend your life? STAT delivers a 5-star answer

Our Review Summary

This STAT story does an exemplary job of describing, and putting into context, yet another observational study of the possible links between coffee consumption and health, this one concluding that overall, whether decaf or regular, coffee is associated with reduced risk of death from heart disease, diabetes, and neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease, although not cancer. The great strengths of the story include links to notable previous studies that explain the confusing “backstory” of the coffee consumption/health risk debate among researchers and consumers, along with one of the best definitions of the limitations of observational studies this reviewer has read in a news article. The STAT story gets the quantification and qualification issues down, but also goes the extra mile in noting a strong example of how observational studies can fail consumers and professionals (post-menopausal hormone safety), and in entertainingly giving readers a useful take-home message — drink up, but  but understand that while the health benefits are “strongly suggestive,” they are “not definitive.” Extra credits goes to STAT for noting the absolute mortality risk reduction this way: “coffee would [keep] 1 person in 1000 from dying” each year — something a competing CNN story on the same study lacked.

Why This Matters

Readers and viewers of mass media have been nearly whiplashed by claims and counterclaims related to the benefits and risks of coffee drinking. A few studies over the past several decades have concluded that, at least in large amounts, coffee can be “toxic,” but most of the coverage has focused on the drink’s possible health benefits, but in ways that led to substantial confusion. The new analysis, described in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, has some significant statistical assets not present in previous studies, including a subset analysis of non-smokers’ death risks. Its central finding — that coffee safely confers health benefits (essentially reduced death risks for some major categories of disease) even in relatively high doses among non-smokers — is likely to be reassuring to coffee addicts — and their physicians.