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. 2020 Jun 4;150(8):2164–2174. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxaa147

TABLE 5.

Associations between regular coffee consumption and cognitive function tests in the UK Biobank stratified by CMSG1

Cups/day 0–1 1–2 3–4
β (95% CI) P β (95% CI) P β (95% CI) P
Fluid Intelligence2
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 0.11 (0.02, 0.19) 0.01 0.21 (0.13, 0.28) <0.0001 0.19 (0.08, 0.30) 0.001
1 −0.004 (−0.06, 0.05) 0.89 0.01 (−0.04, 0.06) 0.81 −0.002 (−0.08, 0.07) 0.96
2–3 −0.01 (−0.06, 0.04) 0.71 0.03 (−0.02, 0.07) 0.27 0.09 (0.02, 0.15) 0.008
4–5 0.03 (−0.04, 0.10) 0.42 0.03 (−0.03, 0.09) 0.39 0.12 (0.04, 0.20) 0.004
6–7 −0.04 (−0.17, 0.09) 0.53 −0.06 (−0.16, 0.04) 0.22 −0.05 (−0.18, 0.08) 0.44
≥8 −0.02 (−0.20, 0.17) 0.86 0.01 (−0.13, 0.15) 0.90 −0.10 (−0.28, 0.07) 0.24
Cups/day, linear trend −0.005 (−0.02, 0.01) 0.42 −0.0005 (−0.01, 0.01) 0.92 0.002 (−0.01, 0.01) 0.79
Reaction Time3
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 −1.09 (−3.76, 1.58) 0.42 −1.25 (−3.65, 1.15) 0.31 1.37 (−2.08, 4.83) 0.44
1 3.53 (1.72, 5.35) 0.0001 2.57 (0.99, 4.15) 0.001 2.42 (0.16, 4.68) 0.04
2–3 3.02 (1.40, 4.64) 0.0003 2.73 (1.34, 4.12) 0.0001 2.71 (0.77, 4.65) 0.006
4–5 3.73 (1.47, 6.00) 0.001 2.69 (0.85, 4.54) 0.004 3.07 (0.58, 5.56) 0.02
6–7 3.51 (−0.36, 7.38) 0.08 3.71 (0.69, 6.73) 0.02 5.62 (1.78, 9.47) 0.004
≥8 3.35 (−2.31, 9.01) 0.25 0.80 (−3.45, 5.05) 0.71 6.23 (0.99, 11.46) 0.02
Cups/day, linear trend 0.68 (0.32, 1.03) 0.0002 0.47 (0.19, 0.75) 0.001 0.77 (0.40, 1.15) <0.0001
Pairs Matching3
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 0.012 (−0.004, 0.029) 0.15 −0.010 (−0.025, 0.005) 0.18 0.005 (−0.017, 0.026) 0.67
1 0.019 (0.008, 0.031) 0.001 0.019 (0.010, 0.029) <0.0001 0.018 (0.004, 0.032) 0.01
2–3 0.015 (0.005, 0.025) 0.003 0.025 (0.016, 0.033) <0.0001 0.019 (0.007, 0.031) 0.002
4–5 0.012 (−0.002, 0.026) 0.09 0.011 (−0.001, 0.022) 0.06 0.010 (−0.005, 0.025) 0.20
6–7 −0.008 (−0.032, 0.016) 0.49 0.011 (−0.007, 0.030) 0.24 0.007 (−0.017, 0.031) 0.55
≥8 −0.002 (−0.037, 0.033) 0.90 −0.008 (−0.034, 0.018) 0.53 0.039 (0.006, 0.071) 0.02
Cups/day, linear trend 0.001 (−0.001, 0.004) 0.19 0.002 (0.00001, 0.004) 0.05 0.003 (0.001, 0.005) 0.01
Symbol Digit Substitution2
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 −0.27 (−0.50, −0.04) 0.02 −0.16 (−0.37, 0.05) 0.14 −0.18 (−0.49, 0.13) 0.26
1 −0.07 (−0.24, 0.09) 0.40 −0.17 (−0.31, −0.03) 0.02 −0.29 (−0.49, −0.09) 0.005
2–3 −0.22 (−0.37, −0.07) 0.003 −0.23 (−0.36, −0.11) 0.0002 −0.24 (−0.41, −0.06) 0.008
4–5 −0.03 (−0.24, 0.17) 0.74 −0.22 (−0.38, −0.05) 0.01 −0.27 (−0.49, −0.04) 0.02
6–7 −0.33 (−0.70, 0.04) 0.08 −0.33 (−0.61, −0.04) 0.02 −0.38 (−0.76, −0.01) 0.04
≥8 −1.02 (−1.60, −0.44) 0.001 −0.08 (−0.51, 0.34) 0.70 −0.94 (−1.47, −0.40) 0.001
Cups/day, linear trend −0.05 (−0.09, −0.02) 0.002 −0.04 (−0.06, −0.01) 0.008 −0.07 (−0.10, −0.03) 0.0002
Trail A3 (P-interaction = 0.03)
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 −0.003 (−0.020, 0.013) 0.70 0.012 (−0.003, 0.026) 0.13 −0.003 (−0.025, 0.020) 0.81
1 0.001 (−0.010, 0.013) 0.83 0.006 (−0.004, 0.016) 0.26 0.009 (−0.006, 0.023) 0.26
2–3 0.004 (−0.007, 0.014) 0.48 0.003 (−0.006, 0.012) 0.52 0.009 (−0.004, 0.022) 0.18
4–5 −0.007 (−0.022, 0.008) 0.36 0.015 (0.003, 0.027) 0.01 0.012 (−0.004, 0.028) 0.15
6–7 0.002 (−0.024, 0.029) 0.86 0.015 (−0.005, 0.036) 0.14 0.031 (0.004, 0.058) 0.02
≥8 0.009 (−0.032, 0.050) 0.68 0.006 (−0.023, 0.036) 0.67 0.058 (0.020, 0.096) 0.003
Cups/day, linear trend −0.0002 (−0.003, 0.002) 0.86 0.002 (0.00008, 0.004) 0.04 0.004 (0.001, 0.006) 0.003
Trail B3 (P-interaction = 0.02)
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 0.002 (−0.014, 0.018) 0.84 0.011 (−0.004, 0.025) 0.16 −0.018 (−0.040, 0.004) 0.11
1 0.008 (−0.003, 0.020) 0.15 0.012 (0.002, 0.022) 0.02 0.014 (−0.001, 0.028) 0.06
2–3 0.014 (0.004, 0.025) 0.006 0.011 (0.002, 0.019) 0.02 0.011 (−0.001, 0.024) 0.07
4–5 −0.004 (−0.019, 0.010) 0.56 0.018 (0.006, 0.029) 0.003 0.004 (−0.012, 0.019) 0.64
6–7 −0.005 (−0.031, 0.021) 0.70 0.007 (−0.013, 0.027) 0.50 0.032 (0.006, 0.058) 0.01
≥8 0.039 (−0.002, 0.080) 0.06 0.019 (−0.010, 0.049) 0.20 0.069 (0.032, 0.106) 0.0002
Cups/day, linear trend 0.001 (−0.001, 0.004) 0.32 0.002 (0.0004, 0.004) 0.02 0.004 (0.002, 0.007) 0.001
Prospective Memory Test2
OR (95% CI) P OR (95% CI) P OR (95% CI) P
0 Reference Reference Reference
<1 1.15 (1.02, 1.30) 0.03 1.37 (1.22, 1.54) <0.0001 1.28 (1.09, 1.51) 0.003
1 0.99 (0.92, 1.08) 0.85 1.03 (0.96, 1.10) 0.47 1.04 (0.94, 1.15) 0.48
2–3 0.99 (0.92, 1.07) 0.85 0.97 (0.91, 1.03) 0.29 1.01 (0.92, 1.11) 0.81
4–5 0.93 (0.84, 1.04) 0.20 1.02 (0.94, 1.11) 0.64 1.02 (0.91, 1.14) 0.77
6–7 0.96 (0.80, 1.14) 0.64 1.02 (0.89, 1.18) 0.74 1.00 (0.83, 1.20) 0.97
≥8 0.99 (0.77, 1.27) 0.91 1.02 (0.84, 1.24) 0.86 0.79 (0.63, 1.00) 0.05
Cups/day, linear trend 0.99 (0.97, 1.01) 0.20 1.00 (0.98, 1.01) 0.62 0.99 (0.97, 1.01) 0.15
1

Results from linear/logistic regressions adjusted for age, sex, smoking, Townsend deprivation index, education, income, employment status, home ownership, self-reported health, waist-to-hip ratio, physical activity, fasting time and intakes of alcohol, water, fish, red meat, fruit, vegetables, and tea (model 3). CMSG: caffeine metabolism score; derived by summing the number of single-nucleotide polymorphism alleles multiplied by their β-coefficients and recalibrated such that it ranged from 0 to 4, with higher scores predicting faster caffeine metabolism.

2

Positive β-coefficients for FI (difference in 13-point score) and SDS (difference in number of correct substitutions) and OR >1 for PM (correct on first attempt) correspond to higher performance compared with nondrinkers (0 cups/day).

3

Negative β-coefficients for Pairs [difference in (log-transformed) number of errors], RT (difference in time, seconds, to respond), Trails A and Trails B [difference in (log transformed) time to complete] correspond to higher performance compared with nondrinkers (0 cups/d).

FI, fluid intelligence; Pairs, Pairs Matching; PM, prospective memory; RT, reaction time; SDS, symbol digit substitution.