Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is chronic inflammatory disease. Although coffee impacts metabolism, no evidence has shown an association between coffee consumption and decreased risk for developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) among RA patients. Hence, we examined the association between coffee consumption and metabolic syndrome severity among 1094 participants with self-reported RA. Accordingly, patients with MetS z-scores of <0 and ≥0 were designated as low- and high-risk groups, respectively. In the fully adjusted model, drinking over two cups of coffee daily was associated with a decrease in the MetS z-score (p = 0.04). Subgroup analysis showed that in the low-risk group, daily intake of <2 cups of coffee was associated with low MetS z-scores (p = 0.003), scores (p = 0.03). Coffee intake was associated with low body mass index (p = 0.03 for 0−2 cups per day; p = 0.02 for >2 cups per day) and low HOMA-IR (β, −2.62; 95%CI, −5.13 to −0.11; p = 0.04). Our study suggests that coffee, but not decaffeinated coffee consumption and total caffeine intake, is associated with MetS severity in RA.
Keywords: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; caffeine; coffee; metabolic syndrome; rheumatoid arthritis.