Forskning

September 30, 2011

Coffee and *amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a possible preventive role

E Beghi et al, Coffee and *amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a possible preventive role, American Journal of Epidemiology, 2011. 

*Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a rare, severe neurologic disorder causing motor neuron degeneration and death within 3-5 years of symptom onset in approximately 80% of patients.

The relationship between coffee intake and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was investigated in 377 newly diagnosed ALS patients from 4 Italian population-based registries in the European ALS Consortium. For each patient, 2 age and sex matched hospital controls were selected, one from a neurology department and one from a non-neurologic department. Two additional healthy controls were identified from local general practitioners lists and residents of the same area of a cancer cohort. Coffee intake was defined in terms of status (ever consuming coffee daily for >6 months vs. never), duration, and history (never, former, or current). Ever coffee drinkers comprised 74.7% of ALS patients, 80.4% of neurologic controls, 85.6% of non-neurologic controls, 88.9% of GP controls, and 86.0% of cancer cohort controls. Current coffee drinkers comprised 60.2% of ALS patients, 70.2% of neurologic controls, 76.4% on non-neurologic controls, and 82.3% of GP controls; duration of intake was > 30 years for 62.3%, 67.7%, 74.7%, and 72.6%. ALS patients had lower lifetime coffee exposure: Odds ratios were 0.7, 0.6, and 0.4, in comparison with neurologic, non-neurologic, and GP controls, respectively. In current (vs.never) coffee drinkers, odds ratios were 0.7, 0.5, and 0.4 respectively. ‘These findings provide epidemiologic evidence of an inverse correlation between coffee intake and ALS risk’.