Green tea consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies
Ze-Mu Wang Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases Volume 33, Issue 4, April 2023, Pages 715-723
Background and aims
Conflicting evidence exists regarding the association between green tea consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). We performed a meta-analysis to determine whether an association exists between them in cohort studies.
Methods and results
We searched the PubMed and EMBASE databases for studies conducted until September 2022. Prospective cohort studies that provided relative risk (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association were included. Study-specific risk estimates were combined using a random-effects model. A total of seven studies, with 9211 CHD cases among 772,922 participants, were included. We observed a nonlinear association between green tea consumption and the risk of CHD (P for nonlinearity = 0.0009). Compared with nonconsumers, the RRs (95% CI) of CHD across levels of green tea consumption were 0.89 (0.83, 0.96) for 1 cup/day (1 cup = 300 ml), 0.84 (0.77, 0.93) for 2 cups/day, 0.85 (0.77, 0.92) for 3 cups/day, 0.88 (0.81, 0.96) for 4 cups/day, and 0.92 (0.82, 1.04) for 5 cups/day.
Conclusions
This updated meta-analysis of studies from East Asia suggests that green tea consumption may be associated with a reduced risk of CHD, especially among those with low-to-moderate consumption. Additional cohorts are still needed before we could draw a definitive conclusion.