Drinking one cup of coffee each day lowered individual risk for developing type 2 diabetes 4%–6%, according to data from a pair of large, population-based cohorts.

Coffee had previously been associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, said Carolina Ochoa-Rosales, PhD, of Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. However, the potential impact of coffee consumption on the subclinical inflammation associated with type 2 diabetes has not been well studied, she said.

In a study presented at the American Heart Association’s virtual Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health meeting, Ochoa-Rosales and colleagues reviewed information for men and women who were enrolled in the UK Biobank Study (145,368) and in the Rotterdam Study (7,172).

Coffee consumption assessment was based on interviews, while diabetes incidence was based on fasting glucose measures, general medical records, and pharmacy records of type 2 diabetes drugs.

The take-home message for clinicians is that drinking moderate amounts of filtered coffee offers a potentially reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes, said Van Horn, of Northwestern University, Chicago. However, additional research is needed to account for the total amount of coffee per day, and whether additions such as cream or sugar or other additives make a difference in outcomes, she added.

“Also, the risk vs. benefit of drinking coffee over the life course, including childhood, pregnancy, and older age, with possible adverse drug-nutrient interactions, remain unexplored,” she noted.

Ochoa-Rosales disclosed study funding from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee but had no other financial conflicts to disclose. Van Horn had no financial conflicts to disclose.

This article originally appeared on MDEdge.com.