Tea consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes in Europe: the EPIC-InterAct case-cohort study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 7; no. 5; p. e36910
• Main Authors: van Woudenbergh, Geertruida J, Kuijsten, Anneleen, Drogan, Dagmar, van der A, Daphne L, Romaguera, Dora, Ardanaz, Eva, Amiano, Pilar, Barricarte, Aurelio, Beulens, Joline W J, Boeing, Heiner, Bueno-de-Mesquita, H Bas, Dahm, Christina C, Chirlaque, M-Doleres, Clavel, Francoise, Crowe, Francesca L, Eomois, Piia-Piret, Fagherazzi, Guy, Franks, Paul W, Halkjaer, Jytte, Khaw, Kay T, Masala, Giovanna, Mattiello, Amalia, Nilsson, Peter, Overvad, Kim, Ramón Quirós, J, Rolandsson, Olov, Romieu, Isabelle, Sacerdote, Carlotta, Sánchez, María-José, Schulze, Matthias B, Slimani, Nadia, Sluijs, Ivonne, Spijkerman, Annemieke M W, Tagliabue, Giovanna, Tjønneland, Anne, Tumino, Rosario, Forouhi, Nita G, Sharp, Stephen, Langenberg, Claudia, Feskens, Edith J M, Riboli, Elio, Wareham, Nicholas J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 30.05.2012; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Analysis; Antioxidants; Beverages; black tea; Caffeine; Camellia sinensis; cancer; Clinical Medicine; coffee; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Consortia; Consumption; Cups; Development and progression; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - epidemiology; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - prevention & control; Diet; Drinking Behavior; Endocrinology and Diabetes; Endokrinologi och diabetes; Europe - epidemiology; Female; Flavonoids; Food; green tea; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Humans; Incidence; Klinisk medicin; Linearity; Male; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicine; Meta-analysis; metaanalysis; Middle Aged; milk; Nonlinear Dynamics; Obesity; oolong tea; Plasma; Polyphenols; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Review boards; Risk; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tea; Tea (Beverage); Type 2 diabetes; Young Adult; Europe
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036910

In previous meta-analyses, tea consumption has been associated with lower incidence of type 2 diabetes. It is unclear, however, if tea is associated inversely over the entire range of intake. Therefore, we investigated the association between tea consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes in a European population. The EPIC-InterAct case-cohort study was conducted in 26 centers in 8 European countries and consists of a total of 12,403 incident type 2 diabetes cases and a stratified subcohort of 16,835 individuals from a total cohort of 340,234 participants with 3.99 million person-years of follow-up. Country-specific Hazard Ratios (HR) for incidence of type 2 diabetes were obtained after adjustment for lifestyle and dietary factors using a Cox regression adapted for a case-cohort design. Subsequently, country-specific HR were combined using a random effects meta-analysis. Tea consumption was studied as categorical variable (0, >0-<1, 1-<4, ≥ 4 cups/day). The dose-response of the association was further explored by restricted cubic spline regression. Country specific medians of tea consumption ranged from 0 cups/day in Spain to 4 cups/day in United Kingdom. Tea consumption was associated inversely with incidence of type 2 diabetes; the HR was 0.84 [95%CI 0.71, 1.00] when participants who drank ≥ 4 cups of tea per day were compared with non-drinkers (p(linear trend) = 0.04). Incidence of type 2 diabetes already tended to be lower with tea consumption of 1-<4 cups/day (HR = 0.93 [95%CI 0.81, 1.05]). Spline regression did not suggest a non-linear association (p(non-linearity) = 0.20). A linear inverse association was observed between tea consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes. People who drink at least 4 cups of tea per day may have a 16% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than non-tea drinkers.