Nutr Res Pract.  2023 Aug;17(4):789-802. 10.4162/nrp.2023.17.4.789.

Association of coffee consumption with type 2 diabetes and glycemic traits: a Mendelian randomization study

• Cho HJ
• Okekunle AP
• Yie GE
• Youn J
• Kang M
• Jin T
• Sung J
• Lee JE

• KMID: 2545192
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2023.17.4.789

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES
Habitual coffee consumption was inversely associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hyperglycemia in observational studies, but the causality of the association remains uncertain. This study tested a causal association of genetically predicted coffee consumption with T2D using the Mendelian randomization (MR) method.
SUBJECTS/METHODS
We used five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables (IVs) associated with habitual coffee consumption in a previous genome-wide association study among Koreans. We analyzed the associations between IVs and T2D, fasting blood glucose (FBG), 2h-postprandial glucose (2h-PG), and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C) levels. The MR results were further evaluated by standard sensitivity tests for possible pleiotropism.
RESULTS
MR analysis revealed that increased genetically predicted coffee consumption was associated with a reduced prevalence of T2D; ORs per one-unit increment of logtransformed cup per day of coffee consumption ranged from 0.75 (0.62–0.90) for the weighted mode-based method to 0.79 (0.62–0.99) for Wald ratio estimator. We also used the inverse-variance-weighted method, weighted median-based method, MR-Egger method, and MR-PRESSO method. Similarly, genetically predicted coffee consumption was inversely associated with FBG and 2h-PG levels but not with HbA1c. Sensitivity measures gave similar results without evidence of pleiotropy.
CONCLUSIONS
A genetic predisposition to habitual coffee consumption was inversely associated with T2D prevalence and lower levels of FBG and 2h-PG profiles. Our study warrants further exploration.

Keyword

Coffee; diabetes mellitus, type 2; Mendelian randomization analysis; Koreans

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Flow diagram of the study population.KARE, Korean Association REsource; FBG, fasting blood glucose; 2h-PG, 2h-postprandial glucose; HbA1c, haemoglobin A1c; MR, Mendelian randomization; PRESSO, Pleitropy RESidual and Outlier methods; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; CVD, cardiovascular disease.

• 

  Fig. 2 The Mendelian randomization estimate of coffee consumption with (A) T2D, (B) FBS, (C) 2h-PG, and (D) HbA1c using a fixed-effects model in the inverse-variance-weighted method.T2D, type 2 diabetes; FBG, fasting blood glucose; 2h-PG, 2h-postprandial glucose; HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.

• 

  Fig. 3 Scatter plot of the MR methods. The x-axis represents the genetic association with coffee consumption; the y-axis represents the genetic association with type 2 diabetes and glucose traits. Each line represents a different MR method. (A) T2D, (B) FBS, (C) 2h-PG, and (D) HbA1c.MR, Mendelian randomization; T2D, type 2 diabetes; FBG, fasting blood glucose; 2h-PG, 2h-postprandial glucose; HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c; IVW, inverse-variance-weighted.

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