Objective: To evaluate the association between coffee consumption and preference for the taste of coffee with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

Background: Previous studies point to a lower risk of developing PD in people who drink coffee regularly. However, these studies commonly do not evaluate the individual predilection for the taste of coffee. The inclusion of this data may change the way we interpret evidence, since genetic determinations related to liking the taste of coffee have recently been described.

Method: This is a case-control study including 55 PD patients, defined by the UK Brain Bank criteria, and 73 non-PD controls enrolled between February and August/2022. All subjects answered the same questionnaire including the questions “how many cups of coffee do you drink per day?” and “do you like the taste of coffee?”. Demographic, comorbidities, disease-related, and treatment-related data were also accessed. We considered high coffee intake as ≥3 cups per day and the preference for coffee taste was determined in a binary way as “yes” or “no”. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using logistic regression.

Results: The mean age, in years, was 71.4±6.8 in the PD group and 67.7±5.9 in the control group. Bivariate logistic regression demonstrated a significant inverse association between high coffee consumption and the development of PD (OR=0.24, 95% CI: 0.09-0.63, p=0.004). When adjusted for age, sex and smoking, logistic regression demonstrates a consistent significant inverse association (OR=0.28, 95% CI: 0.10-0.78, p=0.01). Furthermore, bivariate logistic regression of preference for coffee taste showed a significant inverse association between liking the taste of coffee and the development of PD (OR=0.19, 95%CI: 0.05-0.73, p=0.01).

Conclusion: In line with most studies, we found an inverse association of high regular coffee consumption and PD. However, we also demonstrated an inverse association between liking coffee taste and PD, which raises the question of whether coffee consumption is a protective factor or whether aversion to the taste of coffee would be a risk factor.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/parkinsons-disease-and-coffee-is-high-consumption-a-protective-factor-or-aversion-to-coffee-taste-a-risk-factor/