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LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care
University Medical Center
PO Box 85500
3508 GA Utrecht
Netherlands
E-mail: c.s.p.m.uiterwaal{at}umcutrecht.nl
Center for Prevention and Health Services Research
National Institute of Public Health and the Environment
Bilthoven
Netherlands
Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care
University Medical Center
PO Box 85500
3508 GA Utrecht
Netherlands
Dear Sir:
Voutilainen et al found our results on coffee intake and the risk of hypertension (1) to be largely consistent with their findings in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (2). The main point they raise concerns the part of our conclusions that abstinence of coffee drinking was associated with a lower risk of hypertension than was low coffee consumption. Voutilainen et al argue that the number of coffee abstainers was small; indeed, there were only 231 coffee abstainers. Second, they claim that the coffee abstainers "did not represent the general population" and thus that the observation was confounded. However, after adjustment for confounders, we found this effect of coffee to still be there. Although this observation may appear unreliable because of the small number of subjects, and, although residual confounding cannot be excluded, it is consistent with other findings (3). Therefore, we felt that Voutilainen et al did not provide sufficient reasons to overturn this part of our conclusions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CSPMU was provided an unrestricted grant by the organization on Physiological Effects of Coffee (PEC) in Paris, France. No other authors had any conflicts of interest.
REFERENCES
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