Association between the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and coffee consumption among Korean adults: results from the Health Examinees study.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the frequency and quantity of coffee consumption and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in the Health Examinees study. A total of 130 420 participants (43 682 men and 86 738 women) were included in our study. Coffee consumption was categorized into 5 categories (0, <1, 1, 2-3, and ≥4 cups/day). We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervalS (CIs) using multivariate logistic regression. In this study population, the prevalence of MetS was 12 701 (29.1%) in men and 21 338 (24.6%) in women. High coffee consumption (≥4 cups/day) was associated with a lower prevalence of MetS compared with non-coffee consumers (OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.70-0.90, for trend <0.0001 in men; OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.62-0.78, for trend <0.0001 in women). The multivariable-adjusted ORs for high fasting glucose decreased with increasing levels of coffee consumption in men (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.54-0.67, for trend <0.0001) and women (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.63-0.79, for trend <0.0001). For women, the multivariable-adjusted ORs for hypertriglyceridemia (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.75-0.93, for trend = 0.0007) decreased with increasing levels of coffee consumption. We found that coffee consumption was inversely associated with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Korean men and women. Our study warrants further prospective cohort studies.