Association of coffee consumption with gallbladder disease

Coffee consumption was recently shown to protect against symptomatic gallbl adder disease in men. The authors examined the relation of ultrasound-docum ented gallbladder disease with coffee drinking in 13,938 adult participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. The prevalence of total gallbladder disease was unrelated to coffee consump tion in either men or women. However, among women a decreased prevalence of previously diagnosed gallbladder disease was found with increasing coffee drinking (p = 0.027). These findings do not support a protective effect of coffee consumption on total gallbladder disease, although coffee may decrea se the risk of symptomatic gallstones in women.