Drinking coffee, smoking may protect against cholangitis

(HealthDay)—Coffee consumption and smoking might protect against the development of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), according to a study published in the June issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Ina Marie Andersen, from the Oslo University Hospital in Norway, and colleagues distributed a questionnaire to 240 patients with PSC as well as 245 randomly chosen individuals from the Norwegian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (control subjects).

The researchers found that a lower proportion of patients with PSC were daily coffee drinkers than control subjects, both currently (76 versus 86 percent; odds ratio [OR], 0.52; P = 0.006) and at the age of 18 years (35 versus 49 percent; OR, 0.58; P = 0.003). Differences among men mainly accounted for these associations. In patients, 20 percent were ever (current or former) daily smokers, compared with 43 percent of control subjects (OR, 0.33; P < 0.001). There was an association between ever daily smoking before PSC diagnosis and older age at diagnosis (42 versus 32 years; P < 0.001). Among females, fewer patients ever used hormonal contraception versus controls (51 versus 85 percent; P < 0.001). There was a strong correlation in women between increasing number of children before the diagnosis of PSC and increasing age at diagnosis (P < 0.001).

"Coffee consumption and smoking might protect against development of PSC," the authors write.

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