Coffee Consumption and Risk of Gastric Cancer: An Updated Meta-Analysis

Background and Objectives: Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide, and many studies have investigated the association between coffee consumption and gastric cancer. However, the results are inconsistent. We conducted a systematic analysis of relevant population studies to derive a more precise estimation. Methods and Study Design: Cochrane library, PubMed and Embase databases were searched to identify studies that met predetermined inclusion criterion through July 2014. All epidemiologic studies regarding coffee consumption and gastric cancer risk were selected, and relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results: Twenty two studies (9 cohort and 13 case-control studies) involving 7,631 cases and 1,019,693 controls were included. The summary RR of gastric cancer was 0.94 (95% CI: 0.80-1.10) for the highest category of coffee consumption compared with the lowest category, and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.88-0.99) for coffee drinkers compared with nondrinkers. We stratified the population by coffee consumption. The pooled RR for the population with