Habitual coffee consumption and cognitive function: a Mendelian randomization meta-analysis in up to 415,530 participants.

Australian Centre for Precision Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies (UKCTAS) and School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Center for Life Course Health Research, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Helsinki, Finland. Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Department of Surgical Sciences, Orthopaedics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Institute of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. Unit of Primary Health Care, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland. Department of Clinical Chemistry, Fimlab Laboratories and Finnish Cardiovascular Research Center Tampere, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Department of Clinical Physiology, Tampere University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Department of Pediatrics, Tampere University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Department of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland. Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK. Department of Medical Sciences, Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Population, Policy and Practice, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, WC1N 1EH, UK. Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland. Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. Department of Psychiatry, Research Unit of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment & Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK. Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA. Department of Medical Sciences, Molecular Epidemiology and Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University, CA, 94305, USA. University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom. Australian Centre for Precision Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. Elina.Hypponen@unisa.edu.au. Population, Policy and Practice, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, WC1N 1EH, UK. Elina.Hypponen@unisa.edu.au. South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia. Elina.Hypponen@unisa.edu.au.

Scientific reports. 2018;(1):7526

Abstract

Coffee's long-term effect on cognitive function remains unclear with studies suggesting both benefits and adverse effects. We used Mendelian randomization to investigate the causal relationship between habitual coffee consumption and cognitive function in mid- to later life. This included up to 415,530 participants and 300,760 coffee drinkers from 10 meta-analysed European ancestry cohorts. In each cohort, composite cognitive scores that capture global cognition and memory were computed using available tests. A genetic score derived using CYP1A1/2 (rs2472297) and AHR (rs6968865) was chosen as a proxy for habitual coffee consumption. Null associations were observed when examining the associations of the genetic score with global and memory cognition (β = -0.0007, 95% C.I. -0.009 to 0.008, P = 0.87; β = -0.001, 95% C.I. -0.005 to 0.002, P = 0.51, respectively), with high consistency between studies (Pheterogeneity > 0.4 for both). Domain specific analyses using available cognitive measures in the UK Biobank also did not support effects by habitual coffee intake for reaction time, pairs matching, reasoning or prospective memory (P ≥ 0.05 for all). Despite the power to detect very small effects, our meta-analysis provided no evidence for causal long-term effects of habitual coffee consumption on global cognition or memory.

Methodological quality

Publication Type : Meta-Analysis

Metadata