Cocoa Consumption and Blood Pressure in Middle-Aged and Elderly Subjects: a Meta-Analysis

• Published in: Current hypertension reports Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Authors: Jafarnejad, Sadegh, Salek, Mina, Clark, Cain C. T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.01.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aged; Blood Pressure; Cardiology; Chocolate; Cocoa industry; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Diet; Family Medicine; General Practice; Guidelines/Clinical Trials/Meta-Analysis (WJ Kostis; Humans; Hypertension; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Meta-analysis; Metabolic Diseases; Middle age; Middle Aged; Nephrology; Primary Care Medicine; Section Editor; Sweetening Agents; Topical Collection on Guidelines/Clinical Trials/Meta-Analysis; Middle-aged; Blood pressure; Cocoa; Elderly; Meta-analysis
• ISSN: 1522-6417; 1534-3111; 1534-3111
• DOI: 10.1007/s11906-019-1005-0

Purpose of Review The effect of cocoa consumption on blood pressure (BP) has been investigated in previous studies; however, to date, no meta-analysis has been conducted specific to middle-aged and elderly subjects. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cocoa consumption on indices of blood pressure, in middle-aged and elderly subjects. Recent Findings Pubmed/Medline™, Cochrane Library™, Google Scholar™, and Scopus™ were searched until March 2019. The quantitative Jadad scale was used as the systematic assessment of bias in the included trials. We used a random effects model to estimate the pooled weighted mean differences (WMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We further conducted sensitivity analysis and stratified analysis by baseline blood pressure, follow-up duration, and mean age. Thirteen studies with 758 total participants were included in the present meta-analysis. A significant reduction in SBP by 2.77 (95% CI − 5.28, − 0.27, P  = 0.03, I 2  = 89%) and DBP by 1.47 mm/Hg (− 95% CI − 2.40, − 0.55, P  = 0.001, I 2  = 45%) were observed after cocoa consumption. Stratified analyses showed BP-lowering effects of cocoa consumption in longer-term duration and hypertensive subgroups. Summary Our meta-analysis showed a significant inverse association between cocoa consumption and SBP/DBP. However, the analysis could not conclude any beneficial effect of cocoa consumption on blood pressure in normotensive/elevated blood pressure subjects. Therefore, further studies are warranted to affirm the efficacy of cocoa consumption for the improvement of blood pressure in elderly subjects.