Coffee consumption is known to be related to various health conditions. Recently, its
antioxidant effects have been suggested to be associated with all-cause or
cancer mortality by various cohort studies. However, there has been only one small Asian cohort study that has assessed this association. Thus, we tried to assess the association of
coffee with all-cause and total
cancer mortality by conducting a large-scale cohort study in Japan. A total of 97,753 Japanese men and women aged 40-79 years were followed for 16 years. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of all-cause and total
cancer mortality in relation to
coffee consumption were calculated from proportional-hazards regression models. A total of 19,532 deaths occurred during the follow-up period; 34.8% of these deaths were caused by
cancer. The all-cause mortality risk decreased with increasing
coffee consumption in both men and women, with a risk elevation at the highest
coffee consumption level (≥4 cups/day) compared with the 2nd highest consumption level in women, although the number of subjects evaluated at this level was small. No association was found between
coffee consumption and total
cancer mortality among men, whereas a weak inverse association was found among women. The present cohort study among the Japanese population suggested that there are beneficial effects of
coffee on all-cause mortality among both men and women. Furthermore, the results showed that
coffee consumption might not be associated with an increased risk of total
cancer mortality.