Abstract MP24: Association of Tea Intake with Coronary Artery Calcification and Cardiovascular Events: Results From the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

Objective: Tea is one of the most commonly consumed beverages in the world. However, the association of tea intake with coronary artery calcium (CAC) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) remains uncertain. We therefore sought to investigate the association of tea consumption with CAC progression and incident MACE. Methods: From the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), we examined 6,212 ethnically-diverse participants with available tea data. Participants were classified as never, e (CAC score+1) or log e (CAC volume+1) as the outcome. Cox proportional hazards analyses were used to evaluate the association between tea intake and incident MACE. Results: Over a median follow-up of 11.1 years for CVD events and 5.3 years for cardiac CT follow-up, participants who drank 1 and 2-3 cups/day of tea showed a decreased progression of CAC score and volume compared with never drinkers after multivariate adjustment (Table). This correlated with a statistically significant lower incidence of MACE for 1-cup/day tea drinkers (HR 0.65; 95% CI 0.45, 0.96). Sensitivity analyses excluding Chinese participants showed similar results for CAC progression and incident MACE. Conclusion: We found that being a moderate tea drinker was associated with a decreased progression of CAC and decreased incidence of MACE. Future research is needed to understand the potentially protective nature of moderate tea intake.