Previous meta-analyses identified an inverse association of coffee consumption with the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, an updated meta-analysis is needed because new studies comparing the trends of association for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee have since been published.
PubMed and Embase were searched for cohort or nested case-control studies that assessed the relationship of coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes from 1966 to February 2013. A restricted cubic spline random-effects model was used.
Twenty-eight prospective studies were included in the analysis, with 1,109,272 study participants and 45,335 cases of type 2 diabetes. The follow-up duration ranged from 10 months to 20 years. Compared with no or rare coffee consumption, the relative risk (RR; 95% CI) for diabetes was 0.92 (0.90–0.94), 0.85 (0.82–0.88), 0.79 (0.75–0.83), 0.75 (0.71–0.80), 0.71 (0.65–0.76), and 0.67 (0.61–0.74) for 1–6 cups/day, respectively. The RR of diabetes for a 1 cup/day increase was 0.91 (0.89–0.94) for caffeinated coffee consumption and 0.94 (0.91–0.98) for decaffeinated coffee consumption ( P for difference = 0.17).