Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Aug;32(4):527-33.
doi: 10.1093/ije/dyg103.

Lack of association between tea and cardiovascular disease in college alumni

Howard D Sesso  1 , Ralph S Paffenbarger Jr, Yuko Oguma, I-Min Lee
Affiliations

Lack of association between tea and cardiovascular disease in college alumni

Howard D Sesso et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2003 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Epidemiological studies suggest that tea intake, a major dietary source of flavonoids, may be associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods: We prospectively followed 17 228 subjects (mean age, 59.5 years) initially free of CVD and cancer from the College Alumni Health Study. Participants provided baseline self-reports of tea consumption (cups/day) and coronary risk factors. During a median follow-up of 15 years, there were 3372, 2615, and 757 cases of CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke, respectively, ascertained from either self-reports or death certificates.

Results: Overall, the median level of tea consumption was 1 cup/day. Compared with participants consuming no tea, the multivariate relative risks (RR) of CVD for those drinking <1, 1, 2, 3, and >/=4 cups/day were 0.99, 0.96, 0.95, 0.91, and 0.95, respectively (P, trend = 0.19). The multivariate RR were 0.97, 0.98, 0.93, 0.85, and 0.98 for CHD (P, trend = 0.25), and 1.05, 0.89, 1.00, 1.09, and 0.83 for stroke (P, trend = 0.53). There was no evidence of effect modification. Changes in tea intake were assessed in a subgroup of 7730 men, with those continuing to drink tea having a non-significant 33% reduction in the risk of stroke.

Conclusions: Tea intake, likely consumed as black tea, was not strongly associated with a reduced risk of CVD in this population of US college alumni.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • Commentary: This study failed?
    Poole C, Peters U, Il'yasova D, Arab L. Poole C, et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2003 Aug;32(4):534-5. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyg197. Int J Epidemiol. 2003. PMID: 12913024 No abstract available.
  • Black tea and cardiovascular disease.
    Tokudome S, Nahomi I, Goto C, Tokudome Y, Moore MA. Tokudome S, et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2005 Apr;34(2):482-3; author reply 483. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyh211. Epub 2005 Mar 2. Int J Epidemiol. 2005. PMID: 15743875 No abstract available.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources