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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 40 studies: death risk lowest at 3.5 cups of coffee daily

Kim and colleagues · European journal of epidemiology · 2019

Original title: Coffee consumption and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a meta-analysis by potential modifiers.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

Risk of death from any cause was lowest at 3.5 cups a day (RR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.82-0.89). More cups did not lower it further. The link held for age, weight, smoking and decaf.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
40 studies, 3,852,651 people · Adults in 40 studies that followed people over time
What was tested
Compared people who drank different amounts of coffee with those who drank none
What it measured
The question itself: death from any cause
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
European journal of epidemiology, 2019
Source
PubMed record 31055709. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 40 studies with 3,852,651 people.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: death from any cause.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: death from any cause

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    7

    6 benefit, 1 no difference

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does coffee help you live longer?”

Linked to lower death risk; cause unproven.

Confidence: low. Based on 15 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Other reviews on this question

See all 15 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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