A huge US study of 47,513 nurses over 30 years has confirmed regular coffee intake increases the chances of ‘healthy ageing’ by not having major chronic diseases and physical or mental limitations as they get older.
The results, featured at June’s Nutrition 2025 conference in Florida, indicated drinking coffee increases women’s chances of ‘no physical function limitations, memory complaints, mental health impairments, cognitive impairments or major chronic diseases’ as well as ‘minimising the risk of liver problems and diabetes’.
Participants were described as having ‘healthy ageing’ if they met the following criteria: living to at least 70; not having 11 major chronic diseases; being free of physical functional limitations; free of mental health or cognitive impairments; having no memory complaints.
Food frequency questionnaires from 1984-86 recorded caffeine intake from decaf and regular tea, cola and decaf and regular coffee, with coffee in 8-ounce cups a day and cola in 12-ounce glasses a day. A 30-year follow-up looked at questionnaires from 2014-16 and found just over 3,700 women experienced healthy ageing based on the study’s criteria.
Looking at caffeine sources, regular coffee increased participants’ chances of experiencing healthy ageing, but researchers did not find an association between healthy ageing or its domains and drinking tea, decaffeinated tea or decaffeinated coffee. The results also suggested drinking cola might decrease women’s likelihood of healthy ageing.
Study author Professor Sara Mahdavi told medicalnewstoday.com: ‘We defined healthy aging stringently: Not only surviving into older age, but doing so without major chronic disease, cognitive decline, physical disability or poor mental health.
‘Each additional cup of coffee was linked to about a 2 percent higher chance of healthy ageing, while cola intake was associated with a 20 percent lower chance. The association appeared to be dose-responsive for coffee.’
