Discussion
In this large prospective study higher coffee intake was significantly and nonlinearly related to lower overall mortality in women, after adjusting for confounders including tea intake. When comparing 6? versus 0–1 cups (of 125 ml) coffee/day, the HR (95% CI) was 0.65 (0.47–0.90). No significant association was seen with overall mortality in men. In women, the inverse association with coffee was seen for cancer, cardiovascular mortality and other causes of death, but not for respiratory mortality, while the results for men showed the opposite. Restricted cubic splines analyses indicated that drinking up to 5 cups (or 625 ml)/day of coffee was associated with significantly decreased mortality in women, with no further decrease in mortality with higher intakes. In contrast, tea intake was significantly nonlinearly related to lower overall, cancer and CVD mortality in men, but showed no association with overall mortality in women, nor with specific causes of death. Restricted cubic splines analyses indicated that drinking up to 5 cups (or 625 ml)/day of tea was associated with significantly decreased mortality in men, with the lowest HR (0.72, 95% CI 0.57–0.91) observed in men drinking 2–3 cups/day, compared to nonconsumers. There was no significant interaction between coffee and tea intake. In substitution analyses, increasing tea intake (expressed as percentage of total coffee and tea intake) was significantly and nonlinearly related to lower overall, cancer and cardiovascular mortality in men, but in women higher tea percentages were positively associated with overall mortality (and most causes of death). This Dutch study suggests that for men, compared to exclusive coffee drinkers, those drinking 30–50% tea have the lowest mortality (HR 0.70); any nonzero percentage tea drinking seems better than only coffee. For women, those who drank exclusively coffee or drinking up to 40% tea had the lowest mortality, but those drinking higher percentages of tea were at increased mortality risk, up to a HR of 1.41 (1.01–1.99) for 80–100% tea drinkers).