title: Coffee Consumption and Stroke Risk: A Meta-analysis of Epidemiologic Studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, and contains caffeine and phenolic compounds. Many studies on the association between coffee consumption and risk of stroke have been reported, however, more research is needed to further explore many studies' inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to verify the relationship between coffee consumption and stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, using the keywords "coffee" or "caffeine" for the exposure factors, and "transient ischemic attack" or "stroke" or "acute cerebral infarction" or "cardiovascular events" for the outcome factors. We included prospective cohort and case-control studies published between 2001 and July 2011 in this review. The search was limited to English language.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 27 articles identified for this review, only 9 studies met the inclusion criteria, all of which were cohort studies. When using all cohort studies, the pooled relative risk (RR) of stroke for the highest vs. lowest category of coffee consumption was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76 to 0.91). When subgroup analysis was performed, for Europeans, increased coffee drinking showed a preventive effect on stroke occurrence with RR 0.82 (95% CI, 0.74 to 0.92); RR for women 0.81 (95% CI, 0.70 to 0.93); for ischemic stroke 0.80 (95% CI, 0.71 to 0.90); and for those drinking 4 cups or more per day 0.83 (95% CI, 0.75 to 0.91).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that coffee consumption of 4 cups or more per day showed a preventive effect on stroke in this meta-analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Byungsung
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yunjung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: Junga
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyunrim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Changwon
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Won