Coffee intake and hypertension in Korean adults: results from KNHANES 2012–2016

BACKGROUND: Coffee is the most popular and widely consumed drink in the world. Coffee consumption seems to have both benefits and risk with respect to hypertension; results from studies evaluating effect of frequency of coffee consumption on risk of hypertension are mixed and inconsistent. Hence, we investigated the association of coffee consumption and hypertension in Korean adults. METHODS: Data from Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2012–2016 was obtained and 12,133 eligible participants were selected. The coffee consumption was attained using a food frequency questionnaire. Subsequently coffee intake was grouped into two categories: ≤2 and > 2 servings per day. Hypertension status was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, use of antihypertensive drug treatment, or both. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association of coffee consumption and hypertension. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis showed that consumption of more than two servings of coffee a day was inversely associated with hypertension with odds ratio (OR) 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73–0.99). Similar results were seen in the propensity score-matched analysis (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.69–0.98). Adults having age more than median value (OR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.65–0.89) and normal cholesterol (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.70–0.99) had significantly inverse association with hypertension, when coffee consumption was more than two servings daily. CONCLUSIONS: More than two servings of coffee intake per day was inversely associated with hypertension as compared to consumption of ≤ 2 servings coffee per day. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40885-023-00239-4.