Relation between coffee drinking and blood pressure: analysis of 6,321 subjects in the Paris region.

The possible link between coffee drinking and blood pressure (BP) was studied in a cross-sectional epidemiologic survey of 6,321 adults in the Paris region. Systolic and diastolic BP levels were higher among the 5,430 coffee drinkers than among the 891 nondrinkers (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.01). BP levels adjusted for age by covariance analysis increased gradually from the non-coffee consumption category (125.6/79.8 +/- 15.0/10.5 mm Hg [mean +/- standard deviation]) to the highest consumption category (greater than or equal to 5 cups/day) (128.1/80.6 +/- 15.6/10.2 mm Hg) (p less than 0.001 for systolic BP and p less than 0.002 for diastolic BP). The positive association between coffee consumption and systolic, but not diastolic, BP remained significant in a multivariate analysis after controlling for age, sex, body mass index, alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption and socioeconomic category (p less than 0.02 for systolic BP and p = 0.16 for diastolic BP). It is concluded that coffee consumption is a significant but not strong contributor to the variation in BP levels.