Beverage habits and mortality in Chinese adults.
BACKGROUND
There is limited research examining beverage habits, one of the most habitual dietary behaviors, with mortality risk.


OBJECTIVE
This study examined the association between coffee, black and green tea, sugar-sweetened beverages (soft drinks and juice), and alcohol and all-cause and cause-specific mortality.


METHODS
A prospective data analysis was conducted with the use of the Singapore Chinese Health Study, including 52,584 Chinese men and women (aged 45-74 y) free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer at baseline (1993-1998) and followed through 2011 with 10,029 deaths. Beverages were examined with all-cause and cause-specific (cancer, CVD, and respiratory disease) mortality risk with the use of Cox proportional hazards regression.


RESULTS
The associations between coffee, black tea, and alcohol intake and all-cause mortality were modified by smoking status. Among never-smokers there was an inverse dose-response association between higher amounts of coffee and black tea intake and all-cause, respiratory-related, and CVD mortality (black tea only). The fully adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality for coffee for <1/d, 1/d, and ≥2/d relative to no coffee intake were 0.89, 0.86, and 0.83, respectively (P-trend = 0.0003). For the same black tea categories the HRs were 0.95, 0.90, and 0.72, respectively (P-trend = 0.0005). Among ever-smokers there was no association between coffee or black tea and the outcomes. Relative to no alcohol, light to moderate intake was inversely associated with all-cause mortality (HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79, 0.96) in never-smokers with a similar magnitude of association in ever-smokers. There was no association between heavy alcohol intake and all-cause mortality in never-smokers and a strong positive association in ever-smokers (HR: 1.56; 95% CI: 1.40, 1.74). Green tea and sugar-sweetened beverages were not associated with all-cause or cause-specific mortality.


CONCLUSIONS
Higher coffee and black tea intake was inversely associated with mortality in never-smokers, light to moderate alcohol intake was inversely associated with mortality regardless of smoking status, heavy alcohol intake was positively associated with mortality in ever-smokers, and there was no association between sugar-sweetened beverages and green tea and mortality.
Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA; aodegaar@uci.edu.
Andrew O
AO
Odegaard
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Singapore; Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore;
Woon-Puay
WP
Koh
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA; and.
Jian-Min
JM
Yuan
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Mark A
MA
Pereira
D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D044466:Asian People; D001628:Beverages; D002253:Carbonated Beverages; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D003069:Coffee; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013662:Tea
D003069:Coffee; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D013662:Tea
Asian; alcohol; all-cause mortality; black tea; cause-specific mortality; coffee; green tea; juice; soft drinks