Tea consumption and risk of ischaemic heart disease.

OBJECTIVE

To prospectively examine the association between tea consumption and the risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD).

METHODS

Prospective study using the China Kadoorie Biobank; participants from 10 areas across China were enrolled during 2004-2008 and followed up until 31 December 2013. After excluding participants with cancer, heart disease and stroke at baseline, the present study included 199 293 men and 288 082 women aged 30-79 years at baseline. Information on IHD incidence was collected through disease registries and the new national health insurance databases.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 7.2 years, we documented 24 665 (7.19 cases/1000 person-years) incident IHD cases and 3959 (1.13 cases/1000 person-years) major coronary events (MCEs). Tea consumption was associated with reduced risk of IHD and MCE. In the whole cohort, compared with participants who never consumed tea during the past 12 months, the multivariable-adjusted HRs and 95% CIs for less than daily and daily tea consumers were 0.97 (0.94 to 1.00) and 0.92 (0.88 to 0.95) for IHD, 0.92 (0.85 to 1.00) and 0.90 (0.82 to 0.99) for MCE. No linear trends in the HRs across the amount of tea were observed in daily consumers for IHD and MCE (P >0.05). The inverse association between tea consumption and IHD was stronger in rural (P 0.006 for IHD, <0.001 for MCE), non-obese (P 0.012 for MCE) and non-diabetes participants (P 0.004 for IHD).

CONCLUSIONS

In this large prospective study, daily tea consumption was associated with a reduced risk of IHD.